drive pulley

[D-boy 0]

Will a heavy drive pulley rob power from an engine or will it actually act more like a flywheel.

[callwill 1]

The laws of inertia apply. The heavier it is the more difficult to accelerate it...that is to speed it up and slow it down takes more effort/work. And of course where the weight is concentrated also has an effect. Much the same as a flywheel imo.

[D-boy 0]

So if I have this right once I bring the engine to full throttle The extra weight should help keep the RPM's up.

[DMedal 1]

it IS a flywheel. whether that's good or bad "depends". If you've got a PTO clutch in between it may not be a good thing.

[D-boy 0]

OK here I go spilling out my stupidity If it is a fly-wheel then why do they not put heavier pulleys on the engines (other than to save a buck)?

[richp 0]

For the size pulley your talking, I can't imagine it would make much difference. Maybe if it was 8" or bigger.

[UCD 14]

Because most engines all ready have a flywheel sized to the need of the engine and pulleys need to be different sizes to accommodate different attachment speeds.

[D-boy 0]

Thanks for the info The main reason I was asking was I have an old sears that I installed a wisconsin engine on and it has this three groove (4") pulley on it which weighs alot more than a single groove pulley and I was kinda dissapointed in the power it output so I thought that the extra weight of the pulley might be dragging it down.