Abstract: A belt drive including a pulley, a belt reeved about the pulley and means for slacking the belt to disengage it from the pulley is provided with a shroud about the pulley which has portions narrowly spaced from the edges of the pulley to capture the slacked belt between the pulley and the shroud, thus to guide the belt for proper engagement with the pulley during clutching, to prevent the slacked belt from coming off of the pulley and to coact with the declutched expanded belt to maintain it out of range of the pulley in the declutched mode. The shroud has a mounting bracket and fastening means for releasably attaching the bracket to the engine block. The fastening means comprises a positioning detent which engages a portion of the engine block and a single point fastener which releasably fastens the bracket to the engine block.

Abstract: An assembly of a pulley and shaft and a coupling therebetween. The coupling comprises a clamp having radially deformable jaws embracing the shaft and a jaw actuator for moving the jaws toward the shaft to clamp the pulley to the shaft. The clamp can be incorporated in a pulley having complementary mating stamped half sections. In one embodiment, the stamped pulley half sections have oppositely embossed hub portions forming a pocket in which the clamp is received internally. In another embodiment, the clamp is exposed and is mounted on the outside of one of the pulley half sections.

Abstract: An idler sheave is carried by a bracket pivoted in a mount and fabricated as a part of the gear box housing of the tiller and is movable toward and away from a drive belt extending between two spaced sheaves, one a driven sheave and the other a relatively smaller drive sheave. The mount is located in the joint between die-cast halves of the gear box housing. The idler sheave engages the belt in the area of the larger driven sheave. A tension spring connects the idler sheave bracket to a second bracket which is in turn associated with a control mechanism capable of pivoting the second bracket and, through the tension spring, causing pivotal movement of the first bracket to move the idler sheave against and tension the belt on the drive and driven sheave. When the manipulative force on the control mechanism is released, gravity causes the idler sheave to fall away from the belt, that movement being transmitted through the tension spring to the second bracket and to the control mechanism.

Abstract: A folding tiller handle is made in two pieces connected for limited relative longitudinal and pivotal movement, one piece being a permanent part of the basic tiller assembly. A belt tightening idler sheave is associated with a belt drive which provides the motive force for rotating the tiller tine assembly. A control, which includes two separable rigid rod members, moves the idler sheave into and out of tightening engagement with the drive belt. The rods are joined through a connection which imparts rotary motion from one rod to the other and which also permits relative longitudinal movement therebetween to separate the rods. The rods are associated with respective pieces of the tiller handle so that when the handle is separated or folded, the control connection to the tightening sheave through the rods is interrupted and the drive belt cannot be tightened to establish the tiller drive.