replacing fan belt on International 3414

What are people doing to get the belt completely off and back onto the crankshaft pulley?

Was looking at pulling the radiator and going in with a disk grinder to remove some metal on the frame under the pulley - but don't even have clearance under the pulley for that.

Tractor has loader and backhoe; don't know but suspect the front end metalwork may be beefed up for the loader compared to the B414 models (i.e. hope B414 owners don't have similar clearance problems).

Also looked at possibility of removing the four front engine to chassis bolts and trying to raise the engine slightly to get the clearance. But there is just so much built into the engine/drive train/framework that doubt if I could safely raise the front of the engine enough (1/8 inch or so). Wondering if anyone had taken that approach and whether they succeeded. The front engine to chassis bolts are very easy to get to - two on each side of the engine block.

Visited our local Case(former IHC) dealership. They no longer work on industrials but talked to one master mechanic that had worked on 3414s. He was suprised at my problem. He has never had clearance problems. Pulled book and looked at pictures. Turns out our tractor has a welded cross plate (looks like factory installation) under the front "U" plate attached to engine block and extending out to mount the radiator. According to the mechanic, he has never seen a 3414 with the cross plate which is causing the problem. He recommended taking off the backhoe in rear and then disconnecting engine/rear drive train from loader/chassis frame and pulling the two apart to get the clearance.

(The sound of head banging against a brick wall).

Mechanic said it is not that big a deal popping off the backhoe and pulling the engine/rear end back from frame ~ a couple of hours if you have the lifts to support the pieces for separating.

Popping the pulley off is NOT easier???

For pulling the crankshaft pulley, he was adamant against it. Looking at it would require some clearance problems using a puller while engine was still attached within frame.

I went all over the front end after speaking to mechanic and noticed a horizontal pin mount on the chassis right above the bolster mount for the front axle. It showed signed of wear and had dropped down in the shaft about ~ 1/8 inch. Attached jack right behind the power steering cylinder and jacked up the cross frame till pin was now against top of the shaft (which raised the engine relative to the framework). Then had plenty of room to remove the fan belt. Seems like a strange way of securing the front end of the engine to the framework.

Thanks for your and Roy's responses.