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I had to use pipe yesterday to get mower blades off

Geo-TH,In

Geo-TH,In

Well-known Member
Some of my mowers the bolts holding the blades on tighten as you use them. 99.9% of the time my dewalt impact easily does the job.

Yesterday, the impact couldn't do the job.
I have 2 aluminum pipes in the truck, a one inch and a 3 inch. Each pipe is 2 ft long. The larger pipe will go over the blade and the small pipe extends the breaker bar. It took all I had to get the 3 blades off my John Deere GT275. I use Anti seize.

Any idea how to keep the bolts from self tightening?
I'm getting too old to keep doing this. My shoulder hurt all night.
geo
 
The only way I can think to stop them would be to drill a hole through the spindle stud and use a castle nut. And I'm not sure that will work great.
 
Not sure if you braced the blade well (i usually get lucky and the belt tension holds it fine, but other times i have to wedge them). Any movement when using an impact reduces the effectiveness of the impact. Maybe wedge the blades with a board?
 
I too, use anti seize and never have any trouble.

Upon purchasing a new mower, I remove the blade bolts and liberally antiseize all parts prior to first use.

Dean
 
Neighbor George, I've owned a ton of mowers mostly when I was a used equipment dealer and I NEVER failed to loosen those bolts (even in older rusty mower decks) when I first used a board to wedge the blades from turning and then used MY 1/2 INCH AIR IMPACT WRENCH woooooooooooo hoooooooooooooo now that ALWAYS did the job easily. Prior to re installation I thoroughly wire brushed and cleaned the bolts then applied anti sieze.

Best wishes neighbor take care and be safe

John T
 
when reinstalling are you just tighting as tight as you can get or are you doing to correct torque. if torque to right setting usually never a problem. but then once while you will get one with issues and those units usually see no care anyway, justwhat we have seen in this repair shop. another issues that is never followed is the manufacture always want new bolts each time unit is taken off. that's why the bolts you get usually always have a dab of lock tight on them.
 
I had the problem of rounding the bolt heads to get the blades off my Woods belly mowers using a 12 point socket. I took one box end and would weld it to the bolt head and use a pipe using a block of wood between the deck and blade. It took a new bolt each time. I bought a set of 6 point sockets that solved that problem. That along with using my 3/4 drive impact takes them off with ease. Now the problem is getting the deck high enough then getting back into my chair after getting the blades off and back on. :)^D
 
Look at the blades closely. If you see that they have worn from the bolt/nut head or washer. Install the blades using two washers with a small dab of grease between them. Alot of times it will allow the washer against the blade to spin against the second washer without tightening the bolt/nut during shock loads (start up, hitting something etc).

All of my riders have "star" or tooth spindles and blades. The bolts/nuts do not have to be torqued so tight. Just using a 1/2" ratchet and holding the blade by hand has always worked just fine.
 
George, I don't think you would like the alternative, which would be for the bolts to get LOOSER in use. But if that's what you want, just reverse the mower's direction of rotation. (Of course the blades will no longer cut, but they won't stay attached long enough for that to be a problem.)
Precession
 
I get most of my hits by trying to keep the road edge cleaned up in front of the house. Worst thing yet must of been some sort of magnet as it made one heck of a racket and when looking under the deck cleaning it there were still parts of it stuck under there.
 

Were you using a impact socket... The bid advantage of an impact is the mass of the socket you can add to it by welding a thick piece of pipe to it, it will amaze ya how well a heavy thick socket will remove a bolt/nut over a standard thin chrome socket.

They make one for a Honda its a 19MM socket it will remove a crank bolt where almost nuttin will..

Google Lisle 77080 19 mm Harmonic Balancer Socket for Honda
 
I don't think they make an impact that big.
I had about 3.5 ft of torque arm and it was all I could do to get them loose.
 

The socket makes a big difference believe it are not... Then your compressor needs to be around 175 PSI... Then a real impact not a toy...

Even with my Milwaukee 1/2" impact the socket makes a big difference...

I never had an issue with replacing my mower blades I nail them on with a 3/8" impact are a cordless and never would I put antizese on them its not needed...
 
(quoted from post at 12:13:46 04/01/20) I don't think they make an impact that big.
I had about 3.5 ft of torque arm and it was all I could do to get them loose.
Click to expand...
3.5 foot lever, assuming you were applying maybe 200 lb of force, max? That still only equal 700 ft/lbs.
A good impact will twist that right off.
 
George, Years ago, I came home from work and my Dad and Brother had tried to take my blades off a mower I had at the time to sharpen them.
They finally gave up.
When they told me about it, I said "You know those are reverse thread bolts, don't you?".
I thought I never would get those blades off.
Richard
 
Thanks for your replies.
No one answered my question, "How to prevent this from happening in the future?
All replies were to get a bigger hammer.

I applied grease to the flat washer that comes in contact with the head of the bolt hoping the washer will slip instead of making the bolt get tighter under use.

If that doesn't work, I apply grease to the washer in contact with the blade.

No way the bolt can come lose with grease on washer and even if it did the bolt is very long and the blade will stop spinning before it can fall off.

BTW, I did use 6 point impact sockets and I do know the direction to loosen the bolts on mowers.
Rule of thumb for loosening turn in the direction the blade spins when cutting. The woods mower on Farmall spins backwards from most mowers.

geo.
 
I don't know about other mowers but my zero turn with a 60 inch deck, as per the manual, the blades are only torqued to 60 foot pounds. The blades only have a round hole, I've never had one loosen while I'm mowing.
 
Both woods mowers and GT270 have round holes that self tighten if blade hits something. All other mower blades without round holes don't self tighten.
George
 
> I do use anti seizure. Didn't help.

If anything, anti-seize on the threads is likely to make the bolt even tighter, since there will be less friction to keep it from self-tightening.
 
If the blade is held on with a single bolt or nut, use safety wire.
Or a washer that has tabs or wings that will prevent the hex from turning. One tab gets bent up against flat of washer and other tab gets bent the other way over the edge of blade.
 
Mark,
You may be right about anti seize.

I'll know next year if my grease worked or if anti seizure worked against me.
George
 
It probably has more to do with moisture and dirt getting into the threads. It might help to coat the threads with some anti-seize lubricant.
 
I doubt the torque spec is over 100lb/ft, then reduce torque 25% if using a lubricant or anti-seize. Use hand tools or torque wrench to install, impact to remove. Other than that, a bigger/better impact and/or thicker wall socket, newer tighter fitting socket is better than worn. Remove extensions and adapters will help also.

Air impacts can be a lot more powerful than electric. I like air tools for big jobs or stubborn fasteners and I don't use the cheap brands either. I have air and battery impacts, they both have good and bad qualities.
 
MtMan,
The more I think about it, your advice might be right on. If I over tighten bolt the washer couldn't slip if I hit something. Instead it would tighten the bolt. I'll use a torque wrench next time and experiment to determine the right torque. I used grease on washer because I wanted washer to slip not tighten.
geo.
 
> If anything, anti-seize on the threads is likely to make the bolt even tighter, since there will be less friction to keep it from self-tightening.


I've been using a dab of Anti-Seize on mower blade bolts for over 50 years and I've never had one tighten itself or be difficult to remove. I use an impact wrench to remove and I always torque them to spec when installing.
 
Hello Geo,

The cutting blade can be captioned in a few ways, but the bolt not turning in the blade hole is part of the issue. Enlarging the hole, and using some kind of lube will help. . You did not say what size impact wrench. A 3/8 one should have done the job. A 1/2" one would have twisted the bolt off if it was the threads holding the bolt in.

Next time it happens, use a deep socket, if the bolt its not coming off.,Grabe the socket and turn it-twist it in the direction you want to loosen the bolt. Stopping the back and forth motion puts more torque to the bolt, and usually will come off.

If your impact is not up to speed, all bets are off,

Guido.
 
George Do you know that the washers on your JD 275 blades are cupped??? They are really a Belleville washer. There should be a dot on the side that goes down. If not check the washers with a straight edge and put the open side of the cup against the blade. Also JD says to torque the blade bolts on your mower to 50 ft. lbs.. That is straight from the tech. manual for a 48 inch deck. The bolts should be a flange bolt that takes an 18 MM socket to fit.

Your washers maybe ruined IF you have over torqued them. Take the blades back off and check the washers to see if they still have any "cup" left to them.

They are designed to allow the blade to slip some if something is hit with the mower blade. This lowers the shock load on the rest of the mower deck drive system.

Also you should NOT use never seize on the bolts or washers. This makes the bolts tighten above the recommended clamping force. If used on the blade washers then the blade may slip more than they are designed to do. Lightly oil the bolt threads. The washers and blades just clean and dry.
 
Is it possible the mower is worn to the point you are bottoming out the nut on the spindle and "jambing" it tight? That might explain why it is getting locked in place. If the extra washer idea others have posted works, it might confirm this as well.
 
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