Rotary Cutter Rotary cutter pivot bolt removal..

[stravis]

I've got an old 5' Fred Cain Agri-Cutter that I am repairing. It was given to me by a friend who noticed the blades were hitting, but he made no attempt to fix it, just quit using it. Looking under the deck, one of the blades is held tight by the pivot bolt, the other is sagging and the pivot bolt is about 1 1/4" longer or lower than the other, so that blade is very loose and is hitting the deck. Looking from the access hole in the deck, though, there are equal amounts of bolt through the top of the nut in each.

As cheap as pivot bolts are, I thought I'd just replace that one and it might fix it. Problem is that when I try to unscrew the nut, the entire bolt just spins. How do I hold the pivot bolt still so I can remove the nut? Any ideas? I've thought of letting someone hold the head of the pivot bolt below the blade with a pipe wrench, but surely there's a better way.

Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[kebo]

Huh? How can they have equal amounts of bolts threaded into the nut, yet one is about 1 1/4" longer than the other?? It sounds to me like that bolt might be broken. Pictures would be nice here.

 

[Opti-Mist]

An alternative is to block the cutter up high enough to get under to do the wrench work from underneath while while anchoring the nut from above with a socket and breaker bar anchored to the cutter frame. I've done it in a similar way more than once as I never seem to have any help available.

 

[MikeInEburg]

If it is built like Bush Hog brand, then I block the mower up and hold the lower with pipe wrench while loosening the top with ratchet.

Mike

 

[LarryD]

I block my cutter up so i can work from underneath. I attach a large C clamp right next to the blade in question and let a box wrench come to rest against the clamp. Then I attack it with the impact wrench. So far that's worked for me, but if the bolt and nut have been joined for a while, it may take some serious heat to free them up.

 

[greg_g]

but surely there's a better way.

Yup. Drop the whole cutting assembly, disc and all. Don't know the Fred Cain specifically, but most have a cotter key holding a crown nut on to the spindle (transmission output shaft). Pull the key, unscrew the nut, drop the disc, pull it out from under the mower, work on the individual blade issues out in the open

//greg//

 

[Highbeam]

Tack weld the blade to the round bolt head and then block the blade to remove the nut with a big impact wrench or breaker bar. Do this with the blade assembly on or off the mower deck. Blades are cheap or you should be able to grind the weld off and reuse the blade. As I recall, there is a key on that bolt to prevent it from spinning in the stump jumper but that may have sheared off.