Adding a Grass Catcher to Kubota ZD326

[rreyn1812]

Picked up a used Kubota Grass Catcher for my ZD326 a couple of weeks ago and after ordering some missing parts, I started putting the catcher on the mower today. I knew that replacing the right side belt pulley was going to be fun, as well as getting the idler pulley spring rehung was also going to be great laughs, especially as I was doing the work without an extra set of hands. I've added a couple of pics to show how I was able to do the job.

One of the pics shows the removal of the pulley. Basically, I just pried around the edge of the pulley with a Stanley pry bar and tapped the edge with a soft hammer while continually rotating the pulley. It was very tight, but it gradually came off (took about 1/2 hr). Also sprayed penetrating oil around the pulley bolt while doing this.

Getting the idler pulley spring off was easy, but getting it back on was a bear!! Would have been fairly easy with two people, but today it was only me. Finally has to use a clothes hanger bent into a circle and hooked onto a "S" hook that hooked onto the end of the spring. Then was able to use a pry bar to pull on the hanger to pull the spring out enough so that a screwdriver could hook the end of the spring and the end of the screwdriver was on the spring mount. Then slide the spring down until it caught on the mount. Wasn't pretty, but it worked. With two it would have been just pull the spring until it was past the mount and the second guy could just press the spring down and it should have only taken a few minutes. Took me about 45 minutes to do just the spring. Well, the worst is done and will be ready to test next week. Too cold and windy today.

Anybody have any easier ways of doing this? The easiest way of course would have been to buy a new one and have the dealer put it together, but I saved around $1,000 doing it myself. Just the parts for a new one costs around $2,700.00