Mower bolt problem

[The Fred]

In another thread I talked about my blade style problem but I encountered another one when I put new blades on yesterday.

It is a 60 deck on a BX2350. One blade bolt was badly damaged when I swapped blades. It came out really hard. Probably took 3 minutes with an impact. About just the last half inch of threads were badly tore up, almost looking worn down. I got a new blade bolt and ran a tap up in the hole. It did a lot of cutting, which I expected. The last part of it cut really hard, which is probably where the damaged part of the bolt was. It then seemed to tighten up fine.

Questions? What caused it? I don not think the bolt was loose before I took the blade off but I am not positive. I install the bolts by hand almost all the way to engage the hex washer, then tighten with an impact.

Should I expect problems again? Can you replace just the shaft or would I need an entire spindle assembly?

Don't use an impact gun to tighten the blades, invest in a torque wrench and use the proper torque. I ruined a spindle on my Landpride 72 inch by using an impact gun. No more. Of course use anti-seize like the others recommended also. The finer the thread pitch the easier it is to damage the threads, I'm guessing the thread is metric and if I know the Japs I'd say 1.25mm pitch which is easy to damage.

Good luck, Fred

 

[diesel85]

Here's some interesting video:

Home Depot Bolt vs. USA Made | Offshore Suprise! - YouTube

 

[Industrial Toys]

A friend was just showing me his thread chaser sets. He says NOT to use taps or Dies to repair damaged threads as you just make a mess of it. Just sayin! I would use a tap or die, as I don't have that luxury or if it was an expensive thing, take it to him!

 

[dodge man]

I have a torque wrench. To be honest it is awkward to use so I am just being lazy. When I take the deck off it would be easy but normally I lift the front end up with the end loader to sharpen blades and there is not a lot of room to work.