tighten disc blades?

[snow800]

What is the best way to tighten disc blades? I have a John Deere disc with manual fold up wings. The discs are very loose on the gangs and I can't get the bolts to tighten. Should I remove the gangs from the disc to work on them or leave them on? Would it be best to take them all the way apart and then re-assemble? Any help will be much appriciated.

 

[BANDITFARMER]

What series JD disk is it?

 

[RodinNS]

A big impact gun. Minimum 3/4" 1000 ft-lb.
1" would be better...
Also, you generally need to loosen the bearing hangers and pound them along the gang bolt as you tighten.

Rod

 

[MPK]

Sometimes when they get loose they get worn a little off the blades & spools and you might run out of threads when tightening. Then you may need to take off the nut & put some washers on first to take up the slack. I have also had some dirt get between the outside blade and spool so I had to take it apart and clean it. Also it may take a couple of tightenings to make it stay tight. Use a 3/4 inch breaker bar and socket with 5 ft pipe on handle and stand on it. If yours has a square nut you might need a 24 inch pipe wrench. I have done all of these.

 

[fixerupper]

If the arbor bolt is brand new and the blades are clean as a whistle tightening is a breeze. However, your disk is old and worn so a little more effort needs to be inserted into the tightening process.

Wear hearing protection, take a big hammer and bang away on each blade to knock the dirt out of the area between the spool and blade. WARNING, DO NOT DO THIS WITHIN HEARING DISTANCE OF THE WIFE IF SHE IS TAKING A NAP! Then wiggle the blades a bit because they might be hung up on grooves worn into the arbor bolt. Is the nut bottomed out on the threads? Might have to put a couple of thick washers between the nut and the first blade to get the nut on new threads. Tighten the nut and then bang on each blade again to jiggle them into place. You might have to loosen the bearing hangers too. Jim

 

[JMS/.MN]

Reason fixerupper says to clean the blades is because you can tighten them with grit in the way, but it pulverizes when in use, and the blades are loose then. Grit is bigger than powder.

 

[ET]

If you need thick washers you can cut them out of a steel plate with a torch. They don't have to be pretty.

 

[mazemeister]

1" socket drive. 8' pipe to fit over the handle. put the disk all the way down, so the weight is on the gang, then jump on that pipe until you're turning the gang in the dirt. or if the gang is off the disk, use a front end loader or whatever you got to hold that sucker down, and tighten as much as you can. i'd go at least 5-600 ft-lbs, then probably have to retighten after a few acres.