Rotary Cutter Land Pride Rotary Cutter - call for help

PhilVA · Sep 26, 2004

Gents,

I appeal to the collective wisdom here on TBN. Help me before I take a cutting torch to my rotary cutter. Here's what I'm trying to do.

Decided it was time to change the blade set on my RCR1660 cutter. Got 3/4" drive socket (1 11/16") and breaker bar to remove the nut from each blade. Could not budge it. Added a 5' piece of pipe to the end of the breaker for more leverage; same thing it won't budge. Soaked the whole mess with WD-40 and tried again, same result. Then remembered something my Dad taught me, try to tighten a stubborn nut first before loosening it. Same result, cannot seem to get the nut to move. Next, I borrowed a neighbors 3/4" drive impact wrench and that won't remove it. Any suggestions would definitely be appreciated before I fire up the cutting torch.

BTW, the cutter is only a year old. Thanks.

cp1969 · Sep 26, 2004

Taking the cutting torch to it isn't a bad idea...just don't cut anything with it.

Heat the nuts up before using the impact on them.

I would also suggest that you might want to replace these nuts after doing this.

Warwagon · Sep 26, 2004

Phil, Take your torch and heat the end of the bolt to a dull red, then take a break and have a cup of coffee. When bolt is cool to the touch, spray on some WD-40 or your favorite de-rusto spray and give it a short time to work. The bolt should come right out. When you heat the bolt up, it expands and breaks the rust loose, and the when it cools, it goes back to normal size. Hope this helps, it works for me. Kevin

Dargo · Sep 26, 2004

I have the same cutter and had not problem when I used my Ingersol Rand IR2141 3/4" air impact wrench. I bought that impact when I had dozers, backhoes and an excavator. If you have anyone you know who may have one, see if you can borrow it for about 30 seconds. Otherwise, the progression of 1) spray and wait w/ WD40, 2) bigger wrench / longer extension, 3) heat and beat; seems to work. Careful when heating, you can burn out the seal on the bottom side of the gear box and have a nice leak. (not that I'd learned that from experience or anything... /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif) In extreme cases, I've heard of people actually boiling the oil in the gear box and causing all sorts of issues.

soarkrebel · Sep 27, 2004

If you want to penetrate the nut and bolt use mouse milk or kroil. thats what they are for.

yeah your can heat the thing up and it might work. i just had a similar problem on a grader blade. i could not get the plow bolts off. well i did .......i cut them off. with a torch!

PhilVA · Sep 27, 2004

Thanks to all for the advice. I ended up using the suggestion of heating the nut and then using the breaker bar and "cheater" bar combo to loosen them. My neoghbor could not believe how tight they were. Got the blades changed and used anti-seize on the nuts and studs so I would not have to go through this again.

Again, I appreciate all the replies. I'm learning all the time there is more to tractor ownership than just putting in fuel and changing fluids. Thanks.

Phil