On Tue, 11 Dec 2012 09:57:29 -0600, dpb wrote:

On 12/10/2012 9:40 PM, Ignoramus26227 wrote:
...

The trucks, though, are not without problems. They clearly sat around
for years. The biggest problem is that there is a lot of rust on the
main belt pulleys. So much rust that I am afraid to even try to run
these engines, as the rust may shred the rubber belts.

Is there any "easy" trick to clean that rust on the pulleys off,
without taking the engine out?

I'd seriously doubt the rust will cause any problems whatever and
certainly not enough to damage/ruin a belt unless it's almost gone,
anyway...it's more likely if these haven't run in years that the belts
will have deteriorated on their own, anyway. (Although I just cranked
up the old ensilage blower w/ it's matched set of three last summer
after it had sat in the open for probably 25 yr and while they lost some
wedges, they ran long enough to let me run a few loads of straw bales
thru it to break them up for lawn straw reseed cover... ) But they'd
never serve under real load and it's likely yours won't either if try to
actually put trucks in service but will probably survive long enough for
proof-of-purpose demo's...

Blow and brush off what you can if you think you must, but I'd just give
'em a go...

As others noted along w/ you, the tires alone are probably worth the
deal--good score!
A set of really rusty pulleys can totally destroy a belt in a matter
of seconds - or minutes if you are lucky. At the very minimum you
want to remove the belt and SCRAPE the pulleys