OK...so I did some googling and found a post on My Tractor Forum from 2012 about a guy needing to replace his fan on a 185 Hydro that uses the same Eaton trans. So he figured out a way to support the trans underneath by loosening the top bolts and sliding the trans to the left about an inch just enough to get his fan off and replaced. Well the next post after him said "I just cut the fan in half and bolted it on, two bolts per half. Has served its purpose for 7-8 years that way no issues".
So I partially followed what guy #2 did....here's my post on that forum in case anyone else wants to use this same solution.
I have a 165 Hydro and 175 Hydro. I enjoy using both and will keep them running as long as possible. I just happened to look around my 175 and realized, after owning it for a year, my fan had no cooling fins whatsoever!!!! No clue how that happened and how my trans has been running so well with no air flow and heavy grease/dirt clogged tranny fins! (will power wash that clean/degrease) I took off the fender/seat assembly and moved the gas tank aside, removed the fan guard and went to work on it.
I used a razor knife w/new blade and nearly cut the plastic fan in half but left one of the outer sides alone that the blades are protruding from. This allowed me to spread the fan open Pacman-style so I could feed it over the round hub from the top and viola! Easy. Fan uses 4 bolts, don't see why 2 bolts on each side of a couple halves would create any issues when it comes to the function of the fan. It isn't going anywhere and it still spins like it should. Re-threading the bolts was somewhat difficult, had to get down to the bolt holes using each pointer finger to hold the bolt and to kind of roll the bolt and get the thread started. After I had one bolt in I rotated the pulley (only rotates in one direction) and made sure the next bolt location was at the top of the turn so I didn't have to reach down as far. I have somewhat slim fingers and still had a lot of rubbing on the frame but no blood, just a solid win!!!
Photos - 1: The original, no fins. Holy smokes. 2: Original removed, ripped it out with channel locks. 3: New fan installed. 4: New fan installed, look closely at cut line from left to right side of fan.
Note: I still need to do a solid power washing of the mower, transmission especially.