Changing the blades,zero turn

[Al Smith]

I'm going to break down and buy a mower jack and design something to hold the blades from spinning .As usual about once a season I bend a blade from hitting a tree root or a high stump .Usually I can cut them right about ground level but sometimes not so .Yesterday was one of those days .
Trying to break loose the center blade holding it with a chain with a 3/4" drive ratchet and a 3 foot cheater bar has got just a little too much for an old fart like me .Talk about a pain in the buttocks not to mention the shoulders and knees .Forced me into taking an extra beverage break before I finished my lawn .

 

[lb7 dmax]

I'm sure there are lots of ways that could work, when I did lawn care the way I liked best was using a chain hoist or even come-along to lift the front of the mower (maybe a prop, wood blocks etc underneath mower after lifting as a backup for safety) and impact driver to loosen. Even my cordless 1/4 impact works under normal circumstances, maybe not if you hit something. Be a little careful about over tightening with an impact, I usually just finish tightening by hand.

 

[AVB]

I have seen some ZTR take a considerable amount of effort to break loose the retainers. I had one Scag in the shop that required using a 5 ft cheater to break loose the retainers. Even then I had to rowboat the cheater with both feet on the deck. That was before I got my Air Cat. Most 1/2 impact can break loose many of these retainer but not all hence why I now a 1300 ft-lbs impact. As preventing blade during loosen and torquing I use either a 2x4 or 4x4 depending what it takes for the job.

 

[Al Smith]

I did find a method to hold the blades .Digging through my junk pile which is vast I came across a short section of square tubing about 1 by 3 inch .About a 4-5 inch long piece should be able to slip from one blade to another thus locking them .I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner ,duh . I'll give it a go in a few days .This time of the year I change to a set of heavy duty cut down Dixie Chopper mulching blades to grind up the leaves .

 

[Al Smith]

Ignore post above my grand plan didn't work but a short piece of light weight chain do so all is not lost .So as fall gets with it and causes my trees to go bald and drops tons of leaves I'll grind them up to a fair thee well and be glad I didn't have to rake them .

 

[PissRev]

If you use an air or electric 1/2" impact gun you do not need anything to hold the blade. Also, if you have a trailer you can run one caster up on the trailer gate and change two blades. Then you can move to the other side of the trailer gate and change the other side.

 

[Al Smith]

I tried it early on with a impact wrench with no success .My method with a small chain works but it's just not convenient . However after thinking it over there probably is no way to make it easy . You just have to bite the bullet and do it .

 

[dgeesaman]

I mostly use an air impact. Just gotta watch you don't run it on too hard. One of my blades didn't want to come off this spring and I had to borrow a heavier impact from work to get it loose.

 

[sawfun]

How about using a torque multiplier. I had to the pinion seal on my 97 Dodge with Dana 80 and it called for 600 lbs torque. I did the 5 foot cheater and 5 foot 3/4 torque wrench routine but have read the Chinese 3:1 torque multipliers at around $200 are the way to go. I will no longer do the 5 foot bar.

 

[FergusonTO35]

If you can grab the spindle with a big pipe wrench that works really well too. Anti-seize compound is your BFF.