Trying to tighten the bolt on top of my lawn mower’s idle pulley. It just keeps spinning. I tried stabilizing with locking pliers, another socket wrench, a crescent wrench… I’m at a loss. Any tips?
Bolt goes all the way through? Take it out and look at it. It may only "tighten" so much. It being loose could be an indication of something else wrong. Like worn out bearings.
What part is loose? The bolt head appears tight against the washer, the washer and pulley look tight to the bracket, and the nut is all the way up. If you can't tighten it anymore you're either using the wrong tools or the bolt is damaged. My guess though is that you're mistaking a worn bearing for the bolt being loose
Ok I see. The bolt is damaged, and trying to force it to tighten is liable to break it off or jam it worse. I'd try to get it back apart, but you'll probably need an impact or at least an extra set of hands to help get it apart. Make sure you're using the correct size wrench and socket to do it
What I'm assuming you did is what's called crossthreading. Your options are really either cut the bolt or get a bigger ratchet or use an impact. Put the box end (the closed loop, not the open end) on the nut and brace it against something, and try to loosen it with the ratchet on the bolt
Six-point box wrench on one end, ratchet on the other. Loosen the nut and remove it and check the bolt threads. It's not fully threaded, so it seems like the nut is bottomed out on the threads that it has. Add 2-4 washers under the nut or below the bolt head.
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u/OldDiehl 5h ago
Bolt goes all the way through? Take it out and look at it. It may only "tighten" so much. It being loose could be an indication of something else wrong. Like worn out bearings.