To make a long story short, was mowing yesterday. Was doing a turn and hit the corner of the damn sidewalk.
It bent up the bedknife and that's all I thought. But after closer inspection it busted a weld on the damn reel as well. This makes the reel out of round. It wasn't even that hard of hit IMO. But at this point it is what it is.
So I'm getting a new reel and bedknife.
The question I have is...
1) Any tips for getting the damn 13 bedknife screws screws out? They are rusted and won't budge. At this point I've used wd40, liquid wrench, hammer, chisel, etc. The ones I've gotten out so far, I've drilled out and used an extractor to break them loose. Total. Pain. In. The. ***. This should have taken all of 10 minutes. It's taken me over 5 hours for 5 screws. I'm ordering new screws with the bedknife so I'm not worried about drilling them out, but this is a total pain.
I'm at wits end on the other 7 or so.
2) I got a new OEM 11 blade reel. Is there anything special I need to do with it before putting it back on? Will I have to get the reel and the bedknife sharpened together for them to mate properly? I've read somewhere that you have to sharpen something together, not sure what part it is though.