OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Engines Questions On Victa Two Stroke Engines Victa blades

Hi All

Does any one know a easy way of putting new blade tips onto a Victa blade plate. I always have alot of problems tightening up the bolts as the nuts seem to spin all the time

I have removed the whole disc from the mower ready for new blade tips but cannot actually remove the old tips as the bolt and nut spin freely.

Any help would be appreciated.

Regards

VC Victa

VC Victa,

If it is a late model blade bolt then they have and allen key hole in the blade bolt so that is easy to undo. If you are talking about the old style then that is a different story as you have a diamond type hole in the blade plate.

Now if that hole has been damaged it is going to be difficulty to remove but there is an easy way to do it just put the blade plate in a vice with the nut resting on the vice jaw. You then get a chisel and cut the nut off but if you have an angle grinder then just cut it off.

Next after removing the blade bolt you will have to bur the hole with a round head hammer (metal workers type) and after you have done that the next time you should be able to remove the blade bolt without to many problems.

the ones without the allen key I will usually take the blade disc off and stand on the plate while undoing the bolts on a solid surface such as cement, to firse the bolt to grip on the little bit if the diamond shape hole that is left.

Another (albeit backyard) method I have used is to put the tinyest tackweld on the bolt to the plate, undo the nut then grind it down smooth again to remove the bolt.

Thanks Bruce and Joe

I will get to work removing the blades today.

VC Victa

When installing new blades, I cover the bolt threads with
grease to help unscrew them at a later date.
There are specialist anti-seizing greases avail, but even wheel
bearing grease will suffice.

I use this trick on all my car and bike manifold bolts,
and rarely have problems when dismantling.

cheers about the grease idea ajay. I will use that hwne working on my new toy later on, we can now haul mowers with ease at home

Hey Joe, those early model blade holders could be a real pain to get the bolts out, especially before angle grinders came along.....I remember skinning my knuckles heaps of times trying to get the nuts off...

Hi guys

Thanks for all the tips,I had to cut off the old blade tips with an angle grinder. New ones went on without issue.

I have struck a few rather rusted up ones of late.


A 1 mm cutting disc and cut the bolt down the center cutting the nut in half. Two gentle taps with the hammer to get the two halves of the nut off and its undone.


There was one that this did not work on. I had to grind the nuts right off.



Cheers, Bob.

Sorry to resurrect an old thread (but it's got great info in it) but I went through every trick in this thread short of using an angle grinder to cut the nut in half.

Were the blades on a 550 Pro, the previous owner had put them on without any lube, allowed to rust and absolutely HAMMERED them on with a rattle gun and then allowed to rust for a while to boot. And of course they were the old style blades, which don't have the hex hole on the backside, seriously who was the sadist who designed those?????? Ghastly design that makes zero sense and surely after undoing once they'd see the obvious design enhancement options!

Anyway I was just about to cut the nuts off and figured I'd give the spotwelds a quick go - as if cut off the bolts and nuts would be fubar anyway. Took a couple of tries on a few but managed to get them all off, though the thread on a few of the bolts likely was nearly ruined.

Definitely great info in some of these old threads, plenty of stuff on the net about removing the new blades if stuck but nothing at all on the old ones and those are the real buggers.

Not often do I have to cut the bolts off. I have the blade carrier on the bench, place the bolt head on a socket so that it is held up inside the blade carrier and the rattle gun gets them off 99% of the time. You do realize that the 550 uses the big heavy blades that are used on the 24's and I think that you probably should have gone for a 24 as these are the real deal when tacking bigger areas, only downside is they are not self propelled but they really tackle kikuyu with ease.

Hi Norm,
I actually tried exactly this but had no luck at all - I also tried all manner of things pushing against the bolt head and none of them helped even going so far as to use an off centre g-clamp I had. The bolt would always spin as the diamond shape in the carrier disc had been damaged by the previous owner & also they were rusted, put on with no lube and also put on incredibly tight.

Alas 24's not being a SP really wouldn't help me that much - I will keep them in mind for the future BUT I really need a SP for the summer months and how thick and fast the grass grows on the slopes here. :-)

*NOTE* - I do not recommend anyone perform what I am about to describe. It is extremely dangerous. Please use your mowers as they were designed and as per the instruction manuals.

I have a 560 push and self-drive, awesome machines. And with the grass in Sydney growing like crazy at the moment, they really help with that raw cutting power. Personally, I've never used the 24, but I can say that if you remove the mulching plug and side chute cover, they'll cut through the longest and toughest of grass. If grass is cut as it should be, no more than about 1/3 of the blade, then the chute on the 560 would be OK to leave on, however, when you're doing a commercial job for someone who hasn't had maintenance in weeks/months/years, you need to be able to get bulk amounts of grass out ASAP so it doesn't bog down the engine. The 24 has the advantage of just having a flap which is safer and allows for the better ejection of larger amounts of material. If the 560 had that, with the same PT engine, you'd be in the same ballpark, though I agree the blade speed with the extra couple of inches that the 24 gives you would increase the MPS of the blades by a substantial amount.

FYI I'm finishing up restoring a 560 (VEX60) self-drive I have if anyone is interested.

Hi pau13z,
It is not so much the blade speed, although that helps, it is the spinning mass of the big blade carrier that does all the work and reduces the load on the motor. You also have the advantage of the blade carrier being belt driven which helps soften the impact when it hits things

I would imagine the carrier being belt-driven could also provide a gearing and torque related advantage?

Pau,

Yes, I'm rural and I took the side shoots of each of my mowers that have them. I'm pretty fastidious about ensuring no stones etc on my lawn so this was done with great consideration as I have very large glass windows on my house.

But yes you're right it makes a big difference - I took the side shoot flaps off the 550 Pro's I briefly tested and when I went through quite overgrown kikuyu with it the best way to describe the grass ejection was imagine a car had just driven at high speed through a puddle of water sending it over a nearby pedestrian - except then that the water is instead grass clippings.

I actually have to dial that back a tad as it was too strong - and so it had 4 blades on it, when I get it going again I will try with just 2 - if thats still throws too hard I might take some of the fluting out of the blades by flattening very carefully in a vice.

I find if you use the flap they do clog up more but also it leaves thick lines of very thick clippings....without the flap it tends to scatter them evenly so they're less noticeable.

The 24 is the best mower/slasher I have ever used, they are an absolute pleasure machine, just smashing through everything in their path. My favorite mower