How To Remove Lawn Mower Blade

In this article, we are going to see how to remove lawn mower blade without any expensive tools or methods. Most people tend to ignore the mower’s blade because they think everything is fine if it just cuts the grass.

But maintaining a sharp blade is crucial to keep a healthy and neat garden. Dull blades are mostly rusty and full of debris. This can leave a mild infection on the cut grass making it turn into yellowish color which will invite insects and pests.

how to remove lawn mower blade

It also drains more electricity or fuel because they don’t perform efficiently. To cut the grass in a more even way, it will require much energy or fuel. It can cause your garden mowing hobby an expensive lifestyle.

How to remove lawn mower blade?

So, we are going to see how to remove the lawnmower blades simply without any expensive machinery. Follow these steps carefully:

1. Safety Preparations

First things first, we should take every safety precaution needed to protect against any accidents that could leave up with life-threatening injuries. So make sure to keep these things available before you start to remove the lawnmower blades.

  • Cut-resistant Gloves
  • Safety Goggles
  • Spanner
  • Ramp
  • Cloth
  • Metal Grinder

Now, put on the gloves and safety goggles and go to the back of the lawnmower. If you are using a riding lawn mower, lift the seat and you can see a battery that initiates the ignition in the combustion chamber. Remove any one of the wires that are running from the battery to prevent any accidental startups.

Then proceed to the gas tank and turn off the fuel line. It will block the flow of fuel to the engine so that the engine won’t start even if the battery is still active.

Next, if you move the front part and see at your right side, you can see a thick cable or wire running. That is the spark plug that carries the electricity to the combustion chamber. Remove the spark plug as a third layer of preventive measure.

If you are using an electric lawnmower, you can simply pull the power cable from the power chord. This will render the equipment harmless. Even after doing these, don’t forget to put on your cut-resistant gloves and safety goggles.

Lawnmowers are extremely powerful machines that can chop off your hands or fingers if they accidentally start. So we are taking many precautions to eliminate the possibility of that ever happening. After ensuring these safety preparations, we can proceed to the next step.

2. Placement Of The Lawn Mower

The next thing we are going to do is place the lawnmower in the right alignment. We have to access the lower portion of the lawnmower easily so that we can remove the blades easily and quickly.

For a riding lawn mower, you would need a wooden ramp or something similar to a ramp. Now slowly ride the lawnmower on the ramp where the front two wheels get placed on top of it. You can see that the mower is at an acute angle. Once it is there, engage the parking breaks in the mower and place two bricks at the front and back of each of the back wheels. This will restrain any motion in the mowers.

If you are using a cylindrical or toro lawn mower, you have to put the main body of the lawnmower at a right angle. Then place some heavyweight on the handle so that they might not fall when we are removing the blades.

Some electrical mowers are compact and weigh lesser. You won’t be having trouble placing them in the right way to make them easily accessible.

3. Blocking The Blades Movement

Most amateurs will try to unbolt the blade as soon as they can access the lower parts of the machine. But lawn mower’s blades are not bolted to them in any ordinary way. First thing, they are extremely tight that they will not unbolt instead spin the blade along with them.

Secondly, they are tightened when you try to unbolt them in the anticlockwise direction. Most bolts will get loosened when you rotate them anticlockwise, but the bolts in the mowers are tightened instead. This is to prevent the blade from falling when it is cutting grasses. So they are bolted with anticlockwise bolts.

So, we have to block or restrain the movements of the blade, or else we can unbolt them. So take a wooden block and a seat clamp. Adjust the seat clamp’s width to accommodate the wooden block. Fix them in the deck’s lip and tighten them. This will restrain any movements of the blade while you try to unbolt them.

4. Unbolting The Blade

We are in the final steps of the process where we unbolt the blade from the lower deck. The engine will make rapid combustions inside the combustion chamber which will move the combustion hammer in a downward direction. This will create a rotational movement in the crankshaft which will pass to the blades. Then these blades will rotate at the speed of 3200 rpm.

how to remove lawn mower blade

This blade will be directly attached to a crankshaft by a bolt. Take a nut loser or spanner and begin unbolting that in a clockwise direction. The seat clamp and wooden block will restrain any movements making your job easier. Now take away the bolt and pull the blade down.

If the blade is free of rust, it will fall along with the unbolted nut. However, most of the time they are rusted and should be manually taken down.

Now you have successfully removed your blade from the machine. You can either sharpen them with an electric metal grinder or flat-file and put it back. Or you can replace the old blade with a new one.

And finally, put the blade back and bolt them using a spanner in an anticlockwise direction. Don’t forget to on the gas tank and put the spark plug back to where it belongs.