Woods Finish Mower Issue

[tagslg]

You may be right, sixdogs; might be worth a phone call at this point.

I did exchange emails with Woods a while back and their feedback was to make sure the cupped washers were still cupped; if not, they could be allowing the blade to slip on the spindle. The blades are on there so tightly, I can't see how they could possibly be slipping on the spindle. Plus, my question with any kind of slippage is, if the blades are slipping on the spindle, why would it just be missing grass on half the blade and not the whole width of the blade? Maybe it is worth replacing the washers just in case.

They also said it just looked like the mower was having trouble picking up the grass the tires ran over and to slow my mowing speed. If that was the case, I figure high-suction blades would fix the issue but they didn't. As it sits, I can get a decent cut if I travel super slow, like a quarter MPH, but that's just not normal.

Thanks, Smokey, I've tried different height combinations in the past but it's been a while so I'll try raising the back up a notch and see how she does.

 

[leonz]

Hello tagslg,

Judging solely on the two images you were so kind
in uploading to the forum for us to look at it appears
to me that one arbor/spindle appears to have only 2
flat washers and the other arbor/spindle has three flat washers.

If you are not using a torque wrench and blue Loctite
to secure the bolt for the arbor/spindle and a heavy
block of wood to keep the blade from spinning it will slip,
been there done that with the heavy welded 4 caster
Wheel Horse mower decks.

If the compression washers are flat they have lost their
ability to maintain the compression strength to hold the
mower blades in place.

I would suggest to you that you invest in spare compression
washers, a high quality torque wrench and a bottle of blue Loctite
to secure the arbor/spindle bolts and a 4" by 4" or 6" by 6" block of
wood to hold the blades in place.

I have had rotary mowers skip while mowing and the reason that
happened was that the driven belt was either not routed correctly with the
flat side of the V belt under pulley F and under Pulley C in the case of
your R550 and or it was stretched.

The V-belt would stretch and still look normal but would cut as poorly as
your images show us as the pulley with the greater tension would always
cut better.

 

[tagslg]

Thanks, Leonz, if I recall, I believe the cup washers were pretty flat last time I switched blades and likely need to be replaced. When I installed the blades, I used the spindle lock wrench and a block of wood on top of the deck to keep things from rotating. Used a breaker bar with a pipe for more torque to install; didn't use a torque wrench or blue Loctite. I'll see about getting some of these parts ordered and getting a big torque wrench and Loctite.

Even still, if the blade is slipping on the spindle, how would that cause the mower to miss grass on only half of the blade and not the entire width of the blade? I'm not saying it's not slipping, I'm just trying to understand how slipping would cause it to only miss grass on one side of the blade.

 

[leonz]

If that happens and the belt is routed correctly and the compression washers are no longer cupped the V belt is stretched too.
A bad set of bearings will also cause this as the V belt will whistle past the pulley and do as you have seen as well.
If you can purchase a kevlar reinforced V belt it will be much more resistant to shock loading from mowing.
If your mower had 2 blades with 4 cutting edges on each spindle/arbor it would be less noticeable.

You have to keep in mind that only ONE cutting edge is working any time the mower is mowing as it advances. and if it is not
spinning as fast it will simply push the grass blades over.

 

[sixdogs]

I do recall those cupped washers on my Woods mower. I recall changing them frequently. Maybe once or twice a year and not sure why I did it. Might be worth looking onto.

Blades don't either 100% slip or 100% not slip but rather slip a little here and there. I could see that look from slipping blades maybe from incorrect torque on the nut or those washers. The problem has to be something simple.