Has anyone removed the belt pulleys from the stepper motors yet? Working on the Z Axis upgrade now, however, having one hell of a time trying to remove the wheel.
I’ve been trying this method, however, I feel like im going to break the motor:
Any recommendations? or Brute force?
I used a rotary tool with a metal cutting wheel to cut it off. I also had to grind a small flat spot on the motor shaft to mount a new pulley.
Should be fine, all the force is transferred to the pulley itself then to they boards via the bar. Just take your time and not use a 5 lbs hammer. Idealy, you would want a gear puller. Take the motors to a autoparts store. They might have one small enough to borrow.
I ended up using my spindle sander to sand off 1 side of it and then hammer and punch it out. What a pain in the arse but seems to still be working just fine 
I used a battery terminal puller.