i have a craftsman 3 blade ride on mower and one day after mowing a
field of tall grass i turned the blades off, the center blade just
fell off the shaft onto the ground.
i just thought it a fluke wierd thing, so i sharpened the blade and
took the other two blades off to sharpen and balance them as well,then
put them back on.
excited to mow with sharp blades i started her up and took off for the
field.it worked perfectly.
i mowed the field and when finished i shut the blades off only to find
the
end blade had droped off the shaft.
i thought perhaps i had not tightened the bolt enough, so i torqued it
down as much as i could.
just to find that on a trial blade run it does the same thing. quite
frusterating-
i cannot find anything on lawnmower blades just falling off.
does anyone have any suggestions???

redskygroup [at] mac.com wrote:

> i have a craftsman 3 blade ride on mower and one day after mowing a
> field of tall grass i turned the blades off, the center blade just
> fell off the shaft onto the ground.
> i just thought it a fluke wierd thing, so i sharpened the blade and
> took the other two blades off to sharpen and balance them as well,then
> put them back on.
> excited to mow with sharp blades i started her up and took off for the
> field.it worked perfectly.
> i mowed the field and when finished i shut the blades off only to find
> the
> end blade had droped off the shaft.
> i thought perhaps i had not tightened the bolt enough, so i torqued it
> down as much as i could.
> just to find that on a trial blade run it does the same thing. quite
> frusterating-
> i cannot find anything on lawnmower blades just falling off.
> does anyone have any suggestions???

Asked Sears?? Mounted wrong side up??

i thought so at first, but checked immidiately, and that's not it.
i wondered if perhaps the blades were clipping each other causing one
of them to unscrew the bolt, but there seems to be clearance.
thanks though-

<redskygroup [at] mac.com> wrote in message
news:1148316355.837868.58120 [at] y43g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
>i have a craftsman 3 blade ride on mower and one day after mowing a
> field of tall grass i turned the blades off, the center blade just
> fell off the shaft onto the ground.
> i just thought it a fluke wierd thing, so i sharpened the blade and
> took the other two blades off to sharpen and balance them as well,then
> put them back on.
> excited to mow with sharp blades i started her up and took off for the
> field.it worked perfectly.
> i mowed the field and when finished i shut the blades off only to find
> the
> end blade had droped off the shaft.
> i thought perhaps i had not tightened the bolt enough, so i torqued it
> down as much as i could.
> just to find that on a trial blade run it does the same thing. quite
> frusterating-
> i cannot find anything on lawnmower blades just falling off.
> does anyone have any suggestions???
>

Put some red Loctite on it.

Buy 3 new self-locking nuts, $.75 each. Yours has lost the plastic
locking ring.
STOVEBOLT

On Mon, 22 May 2006 17:40:29 GMT, Lou [at] its.invalid wrote:

>redskygroup [at] mac.com wrote:
>
>> i have a craftsman 3 blade ride on mower and one day after mowing a
>> field of tall grass i turned the blades off, the center blade just
>> fell off the shaft onto the ground.
>> i just thought it a fluke wierd thing, so i sharpened the blade and
>> took the other two blades off to sharpen and balance them as well,then
>> put them back on.
>> excited to mow with sharp blades i started her up and took off for the
>> field.it worked perfectly.
>> i mowed the field and when finished i shut the blades off only to find
>> the
>> end blade had droped off the shaft.
>> i thought perhaps i had not tightened the bolt enough, so i torqued it
>> down as much as i could.
>> just to find that on a trial blade run it does the same thing. quite
>> frusterating-
>> i cannot find anything on lawnmower blades just falling off.
>> does anyone have any suggestions???
>
>Asked Sears?? Mounted wrong side up??
>
>
>

On Mon, 22 May 2006 16:20:06 -0700, redskygroup wrote:

> i thought so at first, but checked immidiately, and that's not it. i
> wondered if perhaps the blades were clipping each other causing one of
> them to unscrew the bolt, but there seems to be clearance. thanks though-


If the blades made contact, you and the rest of the neighborhood would
know for sure! The noise and the resulting damage would be quite obvious.
The bolt should never "loosen" up by it's self. The bolts always (in every
mower I've ever had) screw down the opposite direction of the blade spin.
So in theory the bolt should tighten while the blade spins.

I asked my toro guy about the bolt loosening up and that's what he said.
Then he took me out back, hand tightened my blade bolts, started the
blades for a mineut and shut it down. He lifted the deck and I checked the
blades and they were on good and tight. I needed a socket set to get them
off again. By no means should one do this to install the blades, but the
exercise was all about showing me that the blade bolts are ment to self
tighten and if I screwed up the blade install I should be safe.

I would suspect that you have a bad bolt, a bad spindel or bad blade. Look
to see if the bolt has been striped or is worn somehow. Mount the blade
and see if the blade is bent. A bent blade could vibrate the bolt off.
Last, inspect the spindel to ensure that the threads are not damaged and
the spindel is not bent.

--
http://resources.ywgc.com/info/

Timothy wrote:
> On Mon, 22 May 2006 16:20:06 -0700, redskygroup wrote:

> I would suspect that you have a bad bolt, a bad spindel or bad
> blade.
> Look to see if the bolt has been striped or is worn somehow. Mount
> the blade and see if the blade is bent. A bent blade could vibrate
> the bolt off. Last, inspect the spindel to ensure that the threads
> are not damaged and the spindel is not bent.

If it is belt drive with a twist in the belt, a wrong twist would
cause 1 blade to go in the wrong direction. The belt on that blade
needs to be flipped. That's my guess.
Tom J

<redskygroup [at] mac.com> wrote in message
news:1148316355.837868.58120 [at] y43g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
>i have a craftsman 3 blade ride on mower and one day after mowing a
> field of tall grass i turned the blades off, the center blade just
> fell off the shaft onto the ground.
> i just thought it a fluke wierd thing, so i sharpened the blade and
> took the other two blades off to sharpen and balance them as well,then
> put them back on.
> excited to mow with sharp blades i started her up and took off for the
> field.it worked perfectly.
> i mowed the field and when finished i shut the blades off only to find
> the
> end blade had droped off the shaft.
> i thought perhaps i had not tightened the bolt enough, so i torqued it
> down as much as i could.
> just to find that on a trial blade run it does the same thing. quite
> frusterating-
> i cannot find anything on lawnmower blades just falling off.
> does anyone have any suggestions???
>

I would get a new set of bolts to eliminate that as a variable. They are
cheap.
Tomes

have had that problem on push mower,went with grade 8 bolt ,lock washer
and heavy thick washer.

http://www.minibite.com/america/malone.htm

ds549 [at] webtv.net wrote:
> have had that problem on push mower,went with grade 8 bolt ,lock
> washer and heavy thick washer.
>
> http://www.minibite.com/america/malone.htm

CAUTION!!! A grade 8 bolt is too brittle for that application! I still
believe the belt is twisted the wrong way and running the blade in
reverse.

Tom J

grade 8 bolt brittle???? now thats a nrw one..

http://www.minibite.com/america/malone.htm

<ds549 [at] webtv.net> wrote in message
news:17757-4475A08A-161 [at] storefull-3257.bay.webtv.net...
> grade 8 bolt brittle???? now thats a nrw one..
>
> http://www.minibite.com/america/malone.htm

Grade 8 bolts are brittle. And it's not a new one. If a high strength bolt
is required, use a military spec bolt. Or use grade 5, which is sufficiently
strong and much more ductile.

Chas Hurst wrote:
> <ds549 [at] webtv.net> wrote in message
> news:17757-4475A08A-161 [at] storefull-3257.bay.webtv.net...
>> grade 8 bolt brittle???? now thats a nrw one..
>>
>> http://www.minibite.com/america/malone.htm
>
> Grade 8 bolts are brittle. And it's not a new one. If a high strength bolt
> is required, use a military spec bolt. Or use grade 5, which is sufficiently
> strong and much more ductile.
>
>
The manual for my mower says to use grade 5.

ds549 [at] webtv.net wrote:
> grade 8 bolt brittle???? now thats a nrw one..
>
> http://www.minibite.com/america/malone.htm

That's the reason I cautioned about using them, because I knew you
didn't have a clue about the use of different grade bolts. I suggest
you read up on metal grades before suggesting someone switch bolts on
anything. The one thing I've seen the most mis-used in my years as a
mechanic is grade 8 bolts.

Tom J