Changing Mower Blades

[tomtractor 71]

Ok - so I am frustrated. How do you take the blades off a WH 42 inch rear discharge deck. It is on a WH c125.

[wh-jason 32]

i use a craftsman 19.2 volt impact, never had any trouble with it gettin the blades loose.

[GlenPettit 1,717]

If the nuts are tight on; remove the entire deck and invert, spray some penetrating oil on them, gently bang the nut & stud to help the oil to sink in (a little heat will help on the nut . . . = heat expands), give the oil time, overnight. Hold the large nut 'now' below the blade (Wheel Horse had a large special extra-long 11/8" thin-head open-end wrench for this), the space is really tight there, vice-grips or a large pliers may work, to keep the spindle from turning. An impact wrench is best, or a large long wrench, again, gently banging while turning should free each of them up. Clean each set of the threads and coat with lith grease.

•• It's that darn "grass juice" that gets down into the threads and acts like a Acid super-glue, got to totally get rid of that "juice-glue".

[Tim 97]

impact gun

everything else is a PIA (pain in the A**)

[Road-Track 39]

If you are going to get a 1.125" wrench to hold the spindle behind the blade. You need one .390" or less thick. I use a thin "oil line" wrench.

Have some fun!

[tomtractor 71]

Thanks guys. I will try to purchase an impact gun at the flea market.

[squonk 41,848]

Take off the deck and bring it to your favorite auto shop. Have them buzz them off with their gun. They probably won't even charge you. Then save up and buy a good electric gun or even better, an air compressor and a air gun.

[Paul D. 26]

I've had good luck using a block of wood wedged between the blade and the deck as a stop and the. Just using a ratchet. Impact is definitely the way to go if you have one but if you don't this works well too.

Sent from my iPhone using

Tapatalk

[CasualObserver 3,410]

Hold the large nut 'now' below the blade (Wheel Horse had a large special extra-long 11/8" thin-head open-end wrench for this)

They look like this. You can find them on ebay occasionally.

[Sparky-(Admin) 21,722]

Like the others, I use a Wheel horse wrench and my air-gun. Works everytime!

Mike............

[Don1977 604]

I jack mine up and use a air impact, it's the best way unless you have some one else change them.

[bowtiebutler956 650]

I jack mine up and use a air impact, it's the best way unless you have some one else change them.

That's the way I do it.

Matt :flags-texas:

[IthacaJeff 151]

To hold the nut under the blade I used an old bicycle wrench because it was thin, but had to grind

out the opening to fit the nut. Used the largest ViceGrips I had to crank down on the bit nut, used

a screw down cable clamp to hold the Vice Grips handles together, and put a 3 foot pipe over the

Vice Grip handles to work as leverage. Nut came off with no problem! (Other than the 15 minutes it

took to set up the rig). Used the same outfit, minus the bike wrench, to undue to big nut on the front

mule drive.

Jeff

[leeave96 487]

I use an impact wrench. Sometimes when I am pulling on a long wrench, I am fearful I am going to distort the sheet metal holding the spindle.

FWIW, I use to sharpen the blades several times a year, but one time I was mashed for time all summer and didn't sharpen the blades at all. I couldn't tell the difference in quality of cut. Now I take the deck off once a year, sharpen the blades, paint the underside of the deck (usually with slip-plate), grease everything-up and I'm good to go for another year.

Good luck,

Bill

[shallowwatersailor 3,214]

Darn rock jumped in my path last week! I've been using my C-105 this year , so far, with the rear discharge 36" deck for grass cutting. Heh, it can't just be pretty, besides the plow is still on the 518xi waiting for the last snowfall.

Anyway, I needed to get an 1 1/8" impact socket from HF for the HF impact gun. Another excuse for a trip to the toy store. Works everytime!

[mrocket49 23]

Hold the large nut 'now' below the blade (Wheel Horse had a large special extra-long 11/8" thin-head open-end wrench for this)

They look like this. You can find them on ebay occasionally.

I'd love to get me one of these wrenches someday. the Craftsman wrench I use is a tight fit behind the blade.

[can whlvr 993]

on the newer decks the spindle will come out just by taking the nut off on top of the deck and then you can work on them at the bench

[tunahead72 2,470]

Hold the large nut 'now' below the blade (Wheel Horse had a large special extra-long 11/8" thin-head open-end wrench for this)

They look like this. You can find them on ebay occasionally.

 

After all these years, I've finally been unable to remove a set of blades from one of my decks, probably doesn't help that the last time they were removed was in 2005.

 

In case I can't find something similar locally, does anybody have a part number for one of these proper Wheel Horse wrenches?

 

Thanks!

[gwest_ca-(File Mod) 11,171]

Check the 1st parts list for the 15-48SC02 mower deck here

https://lookup3.toro.com/partdex/index.cfm?xCaller=Toro

 

Wrench part number 114647

 

Garry

[tunahead72 2,470]

Thanks for that link Garry, and the part number for the wrench.    Looks like it's not available from Toro any more, I'll keep looking elsewhere.

[pfrederi 18,124]

Make your own wrench. Cut off the end of an old blade to remove the bent up portion.  Then cut a 1-1/8" opening in the end of the blade. Mine isn't pretty but it was free and it works.  The blades are very tough steel and they don't deform in use.   I used a cutoff wheel in my angle grinder, faster than a hack saw but not very neat.  (Note the weld bead was just  practice unrelated to the use as a wrench.

 

Click to enlarge.

 

[dsholler 54]

You can also use a blade holder that clamps onto the edge of the deck. I have never had trouble using this with an electric impact hammer. I take the blades off every time I change the oil. Grease the deck, clean the bottom and paint with the used motor oil, run a file over the edges of the blades, and put some grease on the blade nuts ( grass juice is quite corrosive) and put it back together. Has worked well for me so far.

[tunahead72 2,470]

Can anybody tell me the dimensions of the Wheel Horse blade wrench that's been discussed here, especially length and head thickness?  Just estimating from the photo that Jason (CasualObserver) posted here, it looks like they're about 18" long.

 

I've been doing some shopping online recently, just to find possible alternatives.  I've seen several that I thought might work, but now I'm not so sure.  They range from 7" long angled "service wrenches", through 8-1/2" "check nut wrenches", all the way to one 12-1/4" straight service wrench.  All of these are anywhere from 1/4" to 3/8" thick at the head.  Does anybody know if any of these would actually fit and give enough leverage to break that blade nut loose?

 

RC (Road-Track) also mentioned an oil line wrench.  I don't know what that is exactly, any information on that would be appreciated.

 

I would actually prefer to have the genuine Wheel Horse wrench, I'll be posting an ad in the Classifieds here soon.  In the meantime, if anybody has one for sale, I'd love to hear from you -- I'll be at the big show if that helps.

 

Thanks!

 

[jellyghost 378]

On 6/3/2013 at 8:38 AM, tunahead72 said:

Can anybody tell me the dimensions of the Wheel Horse blade wrench that's been discussed here, especially length and head thickness?  Just estimating from the photo that Jason (CasualObserver) posted here, it looks like they're about 18" long.

 

I've been doing some shopping online recently, just to find possible alternatives.  I've seen several that I thought might work, but now I'm not so sure.  They range from 7" long angled "service wrenches", through 8-1/2" "check nut wrenches", all the way to one 12-1/4" straight service wrench.  All of these are anywhere from 1/4" to 3/8" thick at the head.  Does anybody know if any of these would actually fit and give enough leverage to break that blade nut loose?

 

RC (Road-Track) also mentioned an oil line wrench.  I don't know what that is exactly, any information on that would be appreciated.

 

I would actually prefer to have the genuine Wheel Horse wrench, I'll be posting an ad in the Classifieds here soon.  In the meantime, if anybody has one for sale, I'd love to hear from you -- I'll be at the big show if that helps.

 

Thanks!

 

I want to know this too! Can someone reply to Tuna from 2013?

[clueless 3,057]

9 hours ago, jellyghost said:

I want to know this too! Can someone reply to Tuna from 2013?

There are two of these wrenches on ebay right now, go to ebay and type in wheel horse wrench. one guy is selling new ones for $35.00 shipped, the other one is used $30.00 shipped. Both are a little pricey, but there not making them any more, and they do a great job of doing what they were designed to do. They also work good for removing most trailer hitch balls. Get Ya one.