Changing/Sharpening Blades on 48 Exmark Metro

[Pizpoppa]

Its about time for me to sharpen/change the blades on my Exmark Metro 48 mower. I propped it up, was able to get to it, but I just could not get the damn things off. I must say, though, I am not the best with my hands. Do I need a special tool? Is it just really hard to do? Any advice would be appreciated.

[awm]

Put a pipe on the end of wrench.Mabe some grease
on that one for next time or mabe an air wrench

[Richard Martin]

How long has it been since you had them off of the mower?

[jeffyr]

The first time this season (spring, summer, fall) ?

I heard if you use sharpening fluid in the spindles though, you don't have to sharpen them at all.

Sorry Pizpoppa.......couldn't resist. Seriously....

I do it the old fashioned way...I have a 2 foot breaker bar so my hands stay clear of the sharp parts and a crescent on top.

jeff

[RYAN]

It is a rather simple process you loosen the bolts on the top and bottem of the spindle simultaneosly. Blades should be sharpened once a week at the very least, unless you only mow a lawn or two a week.. Hope this isn't the first time this year.

[Vandora Lawn & Landscape]

Two solutions buy impact wrench or goto your friendly neighborhood gas station and ask the mecanic to pop them of when you fill up your tank. I got a used mower with siezed up bolts and that was the only way to get them off.

[Esby]

I also own a 48 inch Metro, to get the blades off you need a rather large wrench to get enough torque to loosen them, once you got them loose, the bolt just spins off. Put a little muscle into it along with a good long handle. Good luck.

[little green guy]

If a wrench, breaker bar or impact wrench won't do it use a torch and heat up the top nut then wrench it of, that should work. I've had to do that a couple times when someones hit something and bent a blade and the bolt got tightened up so bad I couldn't even get it of with a impact wrench.

[TJLC]

I had the same problem on my Exmark Viing hydro until I bought an air compressor and impact wrench. I did it the hard way for a yr or so and then cut my thumb pretty bad. That was enough for me. It's a piece of cake now. When you sharpen everyday, I can't imagine removing blades the old manual way.

[Five Star Lawn Care LLC]

AIR TOOLS

an air impact wrench is a landscpers best friend, makes scraped knuckles and breaker bars a thing of the past. I wouldnt trade my air set-up for anything, it has saved me so much time on equipment maintnace. Deffinatly worth the investment.

[tlcgrounds]

I've got a 48 metro HP. I had a stiff bolt or two and all of this advice is great to get it off but hear is a good idea.. prevent it from hapening. I put a healthy coating of anticease compound every few times the blades are sharpened. I'm not to enthused about taking an impact to blade bolts when putting them back on I only put them on hand tight and never have had a blade spin off and I have done that to 15 spindles for 5 years. Hear is another thing to consider. i had a blade bolt on prety tight once and i took it to a friend with a compressor. We tried and tried and tried and could not break it. I took it out to a implement company and they must have out a 300 lb impact on it becayse it seemed like the bolt shot out of the spindle in a hurry. The size of the impact and psi makes a huge diffrence.

[Toroguy]

When you have the deck raised, place a 2X4 (or any thick piece of wood) between the blade and discharge chute, now when you turn your breaker bar the blade is prevented from spinning. This works for the other two blades as well, just use the baffles as your strong point, then pull the bar towards you.

I found this helpful when I hit an object that tightened my blade. I used a jack because I was on a site and my blade was destroyed.

[Vandora Lawn & Landscape]

I think most of us don't put the blade bolts on with the impact wrench, just take them off. Putting them on tight enough is a simple matter with a wrench and a ratchet.

[jaybee]

I use the 2x4 method also and antisieze. No problems so far.

[Eric E.]

I roll my walk behinds about 4" from the top of my trailer ramp, leave them in gear so they don't roll down. then by pushing down on the handles the machine deck will "stand up" safely by its self. I wear kevlar gloves to reduce cuts to the hands and only hand tighten the nuts and bolts. I also use sharp blades at least every day of cutting.