Rotary Cutter Re-use these rotary cutter bolts?

[rootytoot]

Well, a couple of months later and I finally got the nuts and bolts securing the blades to my John Deere JD516 rotary cutter off! Previous thread discussion here: Rotary Cutter Ran Over T-Post. My gosh, it was a job to get them off.

In order, here is what I did:

1. Crawled under the cutter to loosen nuts with an 18" Crescent wrench: no budge. I could hear the bolts laughing at me.
2. Tough guy, eh? Soaked in Liquid wrench, tapped for vibration.
3. Called dealer, learned that there is an access port on the deck. Tried 1/2" breaker bar through the access port: no budge.
4. Added a 4 foot cheater pipe to the breaker bar: no budge.
5. Sprinkle with Liquid Wrench, heat with propane torch, 4 foot cheater bar on 1/2" socket: got one nut to turn! Impact wrench still wouldn't take it off, so we had to turn it a quarter turn at a time with the four foot bar till it was nearly off, then just the breaker bar.
6. Tried the same recipe on the other nut: sprinkle Liquid Wrench, heat with propane torch, four foot cheater on 1/2" drive breaker bar: twisted shaft off breaker bar! Trip to Sears for replacement 1/2" breaker bar, plus $100 purchase of 3/4" socket, extension and breaker bar.
7. Comrade at work suggested getting a MAP torch (hotter), and heating briefly, so that the nut expands but the bolt has not absorbed heat yet. Purchased MAP torch.
8. So... sprinkled Liquid Wrench, heated 1 minute with MAP torch, four foot cheater on 3/4" drive breaker bar... success on second nut!

Anecdote: today I was working on that second nut, and accidentally lifted up the breaker bar while the edge of the socket was not clear of the access hole. The socket fell off, of course, and I heard it thump onto the ground below. Peering down through the access hole with a flashlight, however, I could not see the darn thing. Finally, I gave up and crawled under the cutter. There was a strange mound of dirt blocking my view of the rear of the cutter, but I persevered and stuck my arm over it and felt around. I could not find the socket! However, the ground under the rear of the cutter was bowl-shaped, so I kept trying to find the lowest point of the bowl. Finally I found the center of the bowl had a hole in it - a ground squirrel has been living under there! The socket was down in the hole - if it had been any smaller it would have just tumbled down who knows how far into the ground squirrel's den.

So, the question I have is this: is it OK to reuse these bolts? Replacement nuts and bolts from the JD dealer would cost me $80. These don't seem too rusty. They have some sort of interference thread, I'm guessing, because no matter how much I clean them up the nuts don't spin on - there's always resistance. I presume this is normal.

Here are some photos of the nuts:

Should I re-assemble these with anti-seize compound? Or thread-lock? Any idea of what torque to tight them to?

Thanks for any advice you have.

Kurt

 

[RickB]

I would re-use them without hesitation. I use never-seize on the threads and hex shank.

 

[newbury]

I would re-use them without hesitation. I use never-seize on the threads and hex shank.

Wire brush them off, put them on, try it out BRIEFLY, make sure everything is good. If it works send each responder to this thread $$
Oh, and it looks like a good deal on the 300 gal. fish tank.

 

[wedge40]

Hey I want my $$$.
Last spring I did the same thing. I'm not that big so I ended up having a friend come over. Had 3/4" ratchet, 1 11/16" socket and a 5' pipe to put over the ratchet. Prior to him coming over I had soaked the nuts in PB-Blaster and heated them a number of times. He managed to get both nuts to "break" lose. And I mean break because when they snapped both times he ended up sitting on the grass. I had borrowed the ratchet and socket from someone at work and both times the nut broke loose I thought I was going to be buying a new ratchet. I ended up getting new blades and bolts and a 3/4" air ratchet to put them back on. Now when I need to take them off I have the right tools. The spec for my bush-hog say I should tighten to 650ft-lbs.

Wedge

 

[old_man]

The simple task of changing the blades can become very time consuming and expensive. I bought new blades and bolts. The cost was nothing compared to the new Ingersol Rand impact wrench and the appropriate sized impact sockets I then had to purchase to get them off. I tried other ways, but just couldn't get em off. I took the stump jumper and blades off first which made it a little easier to work with. I soaked them daily for a week with PB Blaster while I waited for the tools to arrive. The new impact gun got them off pretty quick. Expensive project, but the new impact gun is awesome!

 

[have_blue]

The simple task of changing the blades can become very time consuming and expensive ... Expensive project, but the new impact gun is awesome!

That's what I'm talking about! That's how I ended up with a nice tool collection. You have to justify them one way or another. A while back I needed to weld a $5 part and bought a welding machine That's the way you do that!

When I need to remove my bush hog blades, you can bet I'll get a 3/4 impact wrench!

 

[rootytoot]

Thanks for all the input. By the way, I know what you mean about tools... I recently duplicated my basic tool set because I was tired of lugging the giant toolbox out to the truck every time I went to the farm.

Kurt