my name's Frank I'm going to show you how to check the blade on your machine first of all think safe remove the spark plug cap this will prevent any chance of the engine starting while you're working on it need to wear some nice stout gloves to protect your hands if you tilt the machine to the side there's are a number of things that can happen these involve leaking oil fluid and in some cases the oil clean in fact leak and flood into the air filter element which will cause tremendous running problems so the safe way and the way we tip mowers is to raise the front to do this you need an assistant so I'm going to lift the front of the mower and ask my assistant Joyce just to hold the handle down to the ground if the cut of your grass is poor that's an indication that the blade is blunt but other things can happen to blades as well they can hit objects and become damaged you may see the cutting edge damaged or you may see corners missing on the blade or you may see a bend in the blade that's not part of the design in running will cause excessive fuel consumption and vibration because the blade is a balanced thing so if you see any of these it's time to replace your blade apply a socket to a head of the bolt grasp the blade with one hand and in an anti-clockwise direction undo the bolt the washer you can see rattling beneath my fingers is a single use item whenever the blade is removed even if you remove and refit the old blade you're going to need a new washer now depending on the machine you have the blade adapter may also come off be ready for that so we've inspected the blade we also need to inspect the blade adapter you'll notice there's two locating pins and each one is different sometimes if the blade has hit an obstacle these locators can become damaged if that's the case you need to replace the blade adapter as well as the blade now in our example here those are in good condition so we're going to put the blade back on so this is confusion sometimes which way does the blade go on well there is only one way what you need to remember is that the locators have to enter the cutout in the blade I'm going to take my new washer you'll notice that this is curved the concave part of the washer faces towards the blade and firm the bolt up now one last check we've installed our new washer the locating pigs are within the cutouts in the blade that blades in good condition you can ask your assistant to gently raise the handle as you lower the front of the machine that's it that is how you check your blade you