Outdoor Power Equipment and Small Engines - rider blade bolt broke

Hi all. I have a lawn chief/montgomery wards/briggs 10.5 hp 30 inch cut rider. pretty old. went to take the blade off today to sharpen it, and the bolt broke off. it looks like its a one piece bolt that goes through the blade,bearing housing,and then the pulley on top of the deck. Its fairly rusted, but since i was removing a nut from the bolt, thats why i guess its one long piece. The other end through the pulley is also threaded with a nut. Am i right about this? how does it come off? should i be able to pry the pulley off? can i drill and thread the inside of this and put a bolt into it? I have a feeling that if i try to take out the bearing housing bolts to take it off, they are gonna snap also. any ideas?

Hello tae!

You're probably right that the bolts to the mandrel housing will break. This sounds like it must be a murray product. (murray and MTD made these 30" mowers, but MTD had more than one nut to deal with getting the blade off). The part that went bad is the jackshaft. You can replace just the jackshaft, but I suggest installing new bearings while you're doing that. If you're going to do all that, you'd do just as well to just change the whole mandrel assembly. I'd remove the old one, regardless of broken bolts (throw away the ones that don't break too...replace all with new). It's not an expensive part, and most small engine shops should have one in stock.

thanks Cheese!
i ran across this: MURRAY MANDREL HOUSING FOR 30" DECKS PART#455962
$52.00
how do i know what part number i need?

If you post back with the chassis ID numbers I can let you know what you need and what you have to do to get this apart. Look, either, under the seat or at the rear of the chassis between the rear wheels for the ID tag.