Bolts on brush hog blades.

[RalphVa]

I got the bolts off on my LX4 brush hog blades. Soaked them overnight with PB Blaster. One came loose with my Farmhand 1/2" drive impact wrench good for 550 ft lb. The other needed some help with a 6' pipe over the 3/4" driver.

Wonder how many times you can reuse these nuts? They're the type that are made to go and to come off tight, sorta like a huge Nyloc nut.

Sharpened both sides of the blades and actually went down the sharp edge and put a slight blunt edge on it. These things are really thick.

Think I'll just ratchet back my impact wrench a couple clicks to put the nuts back on and finish off by checking tightness with that 6' pipe cheater over the 3/4" drive. Wonder if anyone has used a spring scale on the end of a cheater bar to check torque. Seventy pounds at the end of 6' would be 420 ft lb. I don't have a spring scale so am inclined to just give it a snug pull on the end of that cheater bar.

The stump jumper on the LX4 is held on by both these bolts, too. Figured it was held in place by the center bolt.

Ralph

 

[tractorhal]

tighten until just befor it breaks. I use a 3/4 torque wrench to mfg. specs.

 

[wushaw]

You can reuse this type of fastner if it still has a running torque of whatever size the nut is..which I don't have that # but if it is tight running it down then it should be fine but if you can screw it on with just fingers then replace it.

 

[scott_vt]

Hi Ralph,
You probablly dont want to reuse them too many times. What happens with that kind of torque, is the threads actually start to stretch. For the price of a couple of nuts, you cant go wrong. IMHO /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

scotty

 

[RobJ]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( tighten until just befor it breaks. I use a 3/4 torque wrench to mfg. specs. )</font>

hehe one of my old mechanic sayings. Also you should replace them right before they break and the blades come flying off. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[RalphVa]

Umm. I screwed the nuts back on with some lubricant. They screwed down to near tight by hand. Used my 3/4" driver with 6' pipe on it to tighten, applying reasonable but not really hard pressure but at a point where the nuts didn't seem to want to tighten any more. Doubt checked torque with my torque wrench, which maxed out (at around 160 ft lb): so, much tigher than that, figure at least 300-420 ft lb. Guess I'll use them this once more and plan on getting new nuts next time. Manual doesn't say. Just says to recheck after the next couple of uses.

Wasn't bad to put back. Used a couple clamps to hold the stump catcher on one side and catcher + bolt + blade on the other end. Had a rachet handle to get the nut down snug before putting the plain drive/handle on to run the pipe over. Didn't use the impact wrench to tighten the nut. Not sure how much torque each click represents. Seems to be about 12 clicks over the 550 ft lb range, and the first couple of clicks give you very little torque. So, it's probably about 50 ft lb/click past the first couple clicks. Could probably back off 3 clicks from maximum and get pretty close to the 430 ft lb spec.

Ralph

 

[rdbrumfield]

Thing is about those brush hogs is that the bolts for the blades are tapered. Take them down good, but be sure to check them after an hour and then at the end of the day after replacing them. I made the mistake of not checking them and it oblonged the hole in the disc arm. No tightening after that, had to replace the crossarm.

 

[EddieWalker]

I have a 6 foot Land Pride shredder. I called them up to find the right sized socket to use and what it shoudl be torqued to. They said 450 pounds for mine. Obviously yours is a different brand and it's probably different, but that should put you in the ballpark for what they're looking for.

Eddie