455 Mower dies after blade change

[Armymutt]

I changed the blade on my JD 455 mower. Tractor starts just fine, but when I engage the PTO, it dies. It acts like an excessive load has been placed on it, but I can't figure out where. I cleaned the deck before changing blades. The new blades are not striking the deck. Only thing I can think of is that the bolts holding the blades on are too tight. I'm not sure how tight they should be. It took an impact to get them off, and one was practically seized. I lubed all the grease points while I had the deck off. Don't know where to go from here.

 

[zzvyb6]

Disconnect the mower driveshaft from the PTO and see if it will engage. If it does, then find out why the driveshaft is locked up. If it still stalls, find out why the pto is stalling: safety, seat, parking brake, pto brake, etc.

Check to see if the belt routing is correct.

 

[Armymutt]

Disconnected, they both work. I loosened the bolts on the blades. Not sure what the torque should be, but I would expect them to be tight since they are holding whirling blades in place. Are the cup-like parts that are between the blades and the deck body supposed to rotate? Put the whole thing together and the same thing happens.

 

[zzvyb6]

Disconnected, they both work. I loosened the bolts on the blades. Not sure what the torque should be, but I would expect them to be tight since they are holding whirling blades in place. Are the cup-like parts that are between the blades and the deck body supposed to rotate? Put the whole thing together and the same thing happens.

Which deck do you have (48/54") or 60" ? JD Parts shows 2 different styles of anti-wrap cups: Looks like cups up on the 48/54, cups down on the 60. They rotate with the blades.

 

[beenthere]

Can you turn the blades by hand when fastened to the spindles?

 

[Armymutt]

I have the 48" deck. The cups maybe the issue. I was able to turn the blades by hand, and by using the drive shaft. The cups weren't turning though.

 

[beenthere]

I have the 48" deck. The cups maybe the issue. I was able to turn the blades by hand, and by using the drive shaft. The cups weren't turning though.

Cups turn with the spindle shaft, so must be you have assembled the parts wrong. Re-calculate the assembly.. and you should be good to go. "Too tight" on the bolt is not the problem.

 

[Armymutt]

I reassembled it. Greased the cups. Everything turns by hand as long as the bolts are loose. As soon as I tighten it all up, it doesn't budge. At this point, I'm frustrated enough and am getting eaten up by the mosquitoes from Florence. Hopefully the green tractor store is open tomorrow.

 

[beenthere]

Pics of the assembly of the cup, the blade, the blade washer, and the bolt shown here likely would be helpful and get you a solution to the problem. Sorry to hear about the skeeters, as they make working on anything right miserable.

Our temps to go to near freezing in a couple days, so that is good news on the skeeter problem.

 

[Diggin It]

I had a very similar problem on a Craftsman when I replaced the spindle bearings. There are two spacers about an 1/8th of an inch difference in length. Put them in right, everything works. Reverse them, everything binds up just as you're describing. But you haven't said anything about taking the spindles apart. I can't see how it would be possible to do what you're describing just by removing and replacing the blades only.