Ooops I broke a cutting deck

[WelshPedro]

My first post on this forum (have tried a couple of others for brillant Kubota advice) This year seems to be a bit of a bad year for my old BX2200D. Everything has started happening - electrics, PTO, and now the cutting deck.

I recently bought new cups and washers for the deck - The centre blade always tended to get loose and the cups were shot from when the prior owner had the deck. But with everything back together and the tractor starting perfectly, I thought I was ready for summer.....

Now this - the centre blade bolt has sheared off - the blade has vanished into the twilight zone (no idea how a two foot steel blade just vanishes) and I am left with the bolt shaft stuck in the blade shaft.

Help? Never taken the deck apart beyond replacing the blade parts.....I can see the two curved washers have gone, the hex washer and the blade. But can you change that central blade shaft? and how.....

Much appreciated

 

[JimDeL]

You might be able to drill the bolt stub and use an 'easy-out.' Personally, my luck with easy-outs seldom works that way, but it's worth a try if it saves the cost and hassle of a new spindle.

Good Luck!

 

[Ktrim]

The only way you're probably gonna get that out is to weld a nut to it.

 

[Ktrim]

Some stubborn ones, especially exhaust studs, I've actually drilled into the broken part. Drill big enough hole to insert a piece of steel. Sacrifice a drill bit or a large nail little smaller than the drilled hole. Get weld down in the hole around the steel. Then weld a nut to it to turn it out.

 

[xrocketengineer]

I would try these first.
Even better, closer to you.

 

[Matt Ellerbee]

My first post on this forum (have tried a couple of others for brillant Kubota advice) This year seems to be a bit of a bad year for my old BX2200D. Everything has started happening - electrics, PTO, and now the cutting deck.

I recently bought new cups and washers for the deck - The centre blade always tended to get loose and the cups were shot from when the prior owner had the deck. But with everything back together and the tractor starting perfectly, I thought I was ready for summer.....

Now this - the centre blade bolt has sheared off - the blade has vanished into the twilight zone (no idea how a two foot steel blade just vanishes) and I am left with the bolt shaft stuck in the blade shaft.

Help? Never taken the deck apart beyond replacing the blade parts.....I can see the two curved washers have gone, the hex washer and the blade. But can you change that central blade shaft? and how.....

Much appreciated

View attachment 131513

I’ve had luck with a pick or punch and lightly tapping it out. With the head of bolt gone, there isn’t any tension on the threads. Should spin right out.

This was on a Toro Groundsmaster mower, but same concept.

 

[Outnumbered]

I had great success with left hand drill bits, and air drill and then an easy out. I had one of the infamous 2008 Ford Triton Engines with the exhaust manifold studs that would beak as well as the broken spark plugs. I suddenly became very good at getting broken stuff out of the old engine. Happy day when I sold the Ford that lived up to the acronym Fix Or Repair Daily!

 

[fc1]

I also would try center punch and lhd drill bit, but I like the idea of trying to spin it out with a punch.

If none of that works the spindles are usu a replaceable subassembly.

 

[Russell King]

If you don’t want to try to get it out yourself then you have a couple of options:

Remove the complete housing from the deck and take it to a machine shop and get them to remove the bolt out of the shaft.

or

Replace the shaft in the existing case.

or

Replace the whole assembly that carries the shaft.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

Looks like once you take off 'pulley and parts' from the top side, the shaft ( #040) and stuff will drop out the bottom. Once off, put shaft in a vice with soft pads on jaws THEN remove the busted bolt. Yes it takes time to remove the shaft BUT once in the vice you can COMFORTABLY decide which option works for you. Probably save you time and a few bandaids.

 

[lugbolt]

I've done a bunch of those. 99% of the time they come out with a punch. How?

take a good sharp center punch and start a divot in the outer edge of the bolt, with the punch going straight in. Once you get a little divot, turn the punch at an angle such that it is turning the bolt backwards, lefty loosey, righty tighty. (turn it to the left if you want it out). Usually if you hit it a few times and keep increasing the angle of which the center punch is going, it'll back em right out, at least far enough so that you can use a locking plier to grab it and spin it out the rest of the way, if not by hand.

Side note, my second boss hired a service manager who had zero experience-other than "youtube". Anyway the couple times I had to extract blade bolts from a spindle (customer bringing in a loose spindle or just the shaft in some cases), I'd back em out with a punch and take it back into the office. SM calls customer "sir your stuff is done, that'll be 0.75 hour labor and tax and supplies"-so probably $110 or so. I thought that was kind of ridiculous for less than 2 minutes' work. Had a couple guys just bring em to me out in the shop, bypassing the office and I can't blame them-those were usually free if they came out easy. Got my butt chewed out over it too but you know what? Those customers ALWAYS came back and bought equipment, parts, or a lot of times service-and guess who they requested do the work? Boss didn't understand that part of "business".

 

[Mmanders6]

Personally I would try lugbolt's suggestion first. If you can't get it moving with the punch, then try center punching and running a left hand drill bit at the lowest speed you can with a lot of pressure. A drill press makes this a lot easier. Either way, I would remove the spindle shaft first. This is a delicate operation and trying to do it lying on the ground under the deck is going to be frustrating.

 

[TheOldHokie]

I am of the sane mind as Matt. No need for artillery.

You just installed that bolt and the broken stub should come right out. This is one of those situations an EZ out is well suited to. Flip the deck over and give the endvof tje biltva couple good shots of PB Blaster and let it work into tje threads for 15 minutes or so. Then center punch and drill a hole about an inch deep. If you want to invest in a small (3/16") left hand twist drill to make the hole you may not even need the EZ out....

Dan

 

[mikester]

If you change or service your blades with any frequency the broken stud will come out relatively easily. Follow Lugbolts suggestions. A left hand drill works great.

 

[Runs With Scissors]

As usual, lots of good advice above.

Go from easiest to hardest.

1. Punch around
2. Reverse drill
3. Easy out
4. Weld-a-Nut
5. Bend over and send it out for EDM removal........... or replace part

(I can only recall one time that I/we sent out a part for EDM'ing though. It was on a Gulfstream G-IV which had rather pricey Rolls Royce engines )

 

[WelshPedro]

Massive thanks to all of the replies. and Easiest to Hardest - Also for the part map. I dont think I'm finding that blade anytime soon so will need to order parts!

Really appreciated all!!!

WelshPedro

 

[lugbolt]

i won the lottery today. Had a customer bring me a Polaris that he broke the secondary clutch retaining bolt off IN (way up inside the shaft, about 3" in). Was able to get a drill to bite into it, then an ez-out to back it right out. Took maybe 30 min tops. Talk about lucky. One of the VERY few times I have had ez-out actually work as designed.

 

[mikester]

i won the lottery today. Had a customer bring me a Polaris that he broke the secondary clutch retaining bolt off IN (way up inside the shaft, about 3" in). Was able to get a drill to bite into it, then an ez-out to back it right out. Took maybe 30 min tops. Talk about lucky. One of the VERY few times I have had ez-out actually work as designed.

I've managed to break several spindle bolts over the years trying to locate buried rocks and pieces of steel in tall grass with my 3PH mower. I've been lucky and they've always come out easily with an easy out. One of the benefits of removing blades with some regularity for sharpening.