Large convex washers for blade

[smhardesty]

Now that I see that we are talking about large equipment and flipping the washers, my assumptions were not quite on. I thought the OP meant installing the washers cupped together straight to the adapter or shaft. Need to have more coffee before replying. Don’t remember ever seeing two washers used on Murray products. Sorry for my mistake.

Hey, no mistake. These Belleville washers are pretty complex little pieces of equipment. I read tons of stuff about them on maybe 8 or 9 different websites and it seems these things can be used in a whole lot of different ways. It took me a bit to finally get it in my head, but according to info on at least three of the sites, if you stack the things, you will double you gripping strength. So, I'm guessing that the engineers that did the work on this particular mower decided that they felt the need for stacking two of the washers to secure the blade. I did find information for using one washer above and one washer below, but that was NOT for mower blades. They do that for things other than mowers blades. I'm kind of baffled by the fact I never ran across these things other than the two I had when I was doing repair in the past and then this one now. To the best of my knowledge, I never saw them on anything we had on the farm. That seems a bit funny to me considering the gripping strength of them.

Thanks to you guys for answering. I believe every person that answered was right, based on the fact that the washers can be used in so many different ways, to include recommendations for NOT using them in some situations.