[2015 Z Force 800 53/Trail EPS]

By the way, the item I'm struggling with is number 8 in the picture I posted above.

That's the fixed sheave not the shaft. It's on that inner spline and should just slide off...and back on as shown at the start of my video on reinstalling.

https://youtu.be/ilf_GcOlx6s

I agree, it should just slide on and off. I've watched two videos now and that's all they do is slide it on and off. I've double checked the manual and the parts guide to make sure I wasn't missing anything. I'll try to get video this evening of an attempt to remove it, if I don't have any luck. I've read some other manufacturer forums where they've had to heat it up to get it to come off but that doesn't make sense in my head since it rocks back and forth on the shaft. At this point, I'll try almost anything to get it off.

After several attempts by myself, my wife, and one of my neighbors, I had another neighbor stop by (the one who actually owns this machine) and he was able to get the sheave to come off after about 30 minutes of trying. Apparently I wasn't being gentle enough with it and was rocking it too far in one direction when trying to remove it. He just barely moved it and it started rocking down the shaft!! Glad that it finally came off, now to the rest of the tear down.