A pleasure to watch you tackle this job. I replaced these pulleys for years until I discovered how easy they are to fix.. And now I'm a confirmed DIYer. Regards from Australia, mate. 30MAY2018
You would be surprised how many videos I watch where the mechanic takes apart rusty...cruddy...greasy whatever...replaces the bearing and puts the same dirty rusty crap back together. GREAT job. Love the options...rivet, weld, bolt, screw. Sometimes we get all tied up on the small stuff and really need to think out of the box.
Great video. Just today I began this repair. Drilled out the rivets, pulled the bearing. Once I get the replacement bearing I will rivet (1/4" steel) the two halves back together. Your video used for reference. Thank you
Thanks for the video, it worked for me. I picked up the bearing at tractor supply for $8 , Amazon has a ten pack of them for $10. The bearing part number is 608 2RS JEM
Good video. Explaining the options of either rivet, weld, bolt, screw is a great tip! I will now have extra bearings on hand. No down time running to pick up or waiting for delivery. By the way nice shop you have. Thanks.
I have a TX 38 for parts 12.5 Kholer,it was in production 88-96.command, motor looks new, fiberglass,starter with solonoid built on it, have a new one with more teeth on the drive gear.
Hey James! I greatly enjoyed the video and found myself thinking...ohhhh...that's how they get that bearing in there! I didn't know. I skipped that day in college many many years ago. For over a year now, I've been buying torn up riding mowers and refurbishing them from front to back, learning much from great videos like yours. My next question...how do I deal with customers that think everything is too expensive? When I change a drive belt, I remove the deck, drain gas and oil, and turn the beast over on its side. THEN I can see everything, and discover WHY that drive belt burned up...which is typically a seized pulley. THEN I call the customer and let them know. The dreaded response: "Naaaa...just change the belt". BUT SIR! It will just rip off again. That is a classic problem with owners. Explains why I programmed computers for 30 years. Didn't need to deal with people, just stubborn machines. Thanks again sir! Lost in my shop in Central Florida. Mr. Brown
I used my angle grinder to remove the rivets.. Replaced the bearing, removed the seals, regreased the sealed beating, and reassembled w/ stainless steel nylock fasteners.
Enjoyed it. Probably would work just fine to use only three bolts evenly spaced, holding the halves together. It would take a huge amount of force to shear even one of those bolts.
Brian C that's not correct sir, 'RS' suffix means rubbing seal. A metal shield does not make it a sealed bearing as there's a clearance between the shield and one of the bearing rings. Clearance lets water and contaminants in. Also the temperature capability of the bearing is related to the temperature capability of the grease, not the seal. The grease will be degraded due to elevated temperature before a rubbing seal is degraded. A sealed bearing is the best choice because the grease has the best chance of staying in the bearing, and the grease used by the bearing manufacturer is cleaner than any grease that a owner might use. Some grease thickener types are incompatible further complicating the task of performing in-service greasing that extends bearing life instead of reducing it.
Oh I ran into the same problem with my JD X300 flat idler pulley. The shop here wants 135 for the belt and 73 for the pulley. Found a toro belt for a 50" deck zero turn that was 141.5" OD that works great for only 22. Now I need just the bearing. Replaced the tension pulley with one from an old bus replacement part. Works just fine.
Nice work, & good video. With a digital caliper ($12) you can measure ID, OD and thickness of the dead bearing and find an exact replacement; sometimes, just feeding the dimensions into Google will do it. I also prefer SKF bearings. A few bucks more, but I feel better about not having to repeat the repair. For a machine that's close to its useful end anyway, a cheap-o bearing will suffice.
Great video and good information. Just a little input when doing this. My only concern would be the balance of the pulley once all those nuts, washer, and bolts as they are not evenly spaced out.
james i've been trying to find the part number for that bearing for my woods rm660 .and i looked that number up and its the exact match. thank you very much
James, this video is very informative. I saw this video years ago and struggled to find it again but I need to do this for a pulley on a walk-behind Dixon 60 or 54 inch lawnmower. Dixon stopped making the lawn mower and therefore you can't get any parts. Your pulley bearing replacement is the ticket. I look forward to the pulley repair b/c your video walked me through the entire process. Do you think that bearing you showed us is still available? I guess NAPA should have that bearing. Thanks again. I may have to contact you through RU-vid to maybe ask for some guidance if I get stuck but your demonstration seems straight forward. Thanks again. 👍🏽🤠. 8/19/22
I've got to start doing that. Those bearings in those ideler pulleys usually only last about a year especially when you get them wet washing the mower off. Thrown so many of those pulleys away.
By the time you have spent all that time and money on drilling, blasting, painting, bolts, washers and nylocks AND the bearing itself, you could have bought a factory replacement for less... So yes, this is good for parts that no longer exist, but most brand name mowers have plenty of parts available.. I just rebuilt the deck on my John Deere with all factory bearings and idler pulleys and belts. Cost me $202.12... ALL John Deere factory replacement parts.. The last time this same deck was rebuilt was 9 years ago and this is used nearly every week of the year in Florida.. "The Sand Pile"............. ;)
But, I just priced a pulley at JD for $17-18, while a bearing is $3-4 if I buy generic ones off of eBay in qty. 6. Bag of 6 for $25. Now I don't have to run to the nearest JD store 20 miles each way if one dies on me. Just yank the pulley off, 5 minutes with the drill, pop out the old one, pop the new one in and screw/loctite it together. Save $10 extra on parts, $6 on gas, and probably 30 minutes of time. I'd probably save more if I bought a cheap HF rivet gun too. I could go out right now and drop $10G or more on a new JD lawn tractor if I wanted to. However its a great feeling to be able to save some time and money, using your hands and head to learn something new and knowing you can actually fix something. Its cheap therapy :)
Just bought a house and my agent got them to throw in an old rust JD 316. Its actually a 1989, with 50" deck and snow blower. Mowed the lawn nicely once, then blades stopped turning. Idler pulley was seized, and found this vid. Since time was of the essence, I actually broke down and bought one from the local JD for $18 or so. But, I am all set now for winter. Going to PMCS all the pulleys this winter. Actually looking forward to it, which is just a touch odd. Great video, hope to see more! One question, where do you all get decent bearings at decent prices, that aren't eBay junk? McMaster/Grainger ?
Cool video. Thanks for taking the time to make it. I have a Craftsman Tractor Model #917258470, and the bearing you are using looks very similar. Thanks again I am going to try this, and hopefully the bearing you are using will work for mine to. Appreciate your time.
Been doing that for a Long time myself... You have a nice, well equipped shop. But as you pointed out, you don't need a many tools to replace a bearing. BTW you can do the same on the serpentine belt idlers on cars & trucks...
Thanks! I’ve got a double pulley on a John Deere F510. The belts won’t stay on or will cut the belt. Any idea on how to fix it? I bought and after market double pulley but the pulley is a wider pulley for a wider belt. John Deere wants $350 for the pulley. Thanks
I’m rebuilding a Murray 52100xxxxx 3 spindle deck into a pull behind trail bush hog. I ran into this problem, got disgusted, and ordered new ones. Now, I think I’ll grind them out, remove the original bearings.
Outstanding job. I just bought a new pto idler pulley today and it has the bearing but I have to put the bushing out of the old pulley into the new one. I'm worried about damaging the new bearing while trying to get the bushing into it, any tips?
make sure you support the middle of the band why you tap it in with a hammer the best way to do it put it in a vise and squeeze it make sure your vices resting with a socket or object we're only supporting the middle inner peace we're not supporting the pulley housing thanks for watching my video
The idler pulleys on my mower are riveted and I pushed a little grease under the seal with a needle because one of them was a little rough. The replacement is around 15 bucks or less (Amazon) and not worth the effort to repair. I just replaced the spindle bearings and added some grease to the bearing cavity because the bearings had dried up.
Can you give me the part # so I can interchange for an auto part #. It's good to see people who still believe in everything can be fixed by actually rebuilding the part. It hurts me to even see what the new generation is doing now. Even worse I can't even get parts to rebuild parts like my alternator for my old beetle when all I needed was a voltage regulator. They don't sell them anymore. I miss the good days when I could pull out a parts book with diagrams and specs so that I could find parts that worked
my cub cadet has idler pulley like the first small one you were talking about. so, there is just one set of bearings sandwiched between the 2 halves of aluminum right? i see where both sides of the bearing set have a dust cover to keep out contaminants. my whole reason for asking this is you only have to grease 1 side right? as the grease will migrate with gravity to the lowest point. i pulled my idler pulley off my cub and eased the dust cover off and repacked the bearings. just hoping to extend the life some.
saw the rivets in mine, and it never hit me that the pulley/idler was in two halves. Thanks. I came looking to see if anyone had any hints on how to free up the bearing, I don't know how stuck mine is... it stuck because I left it out in the weather over the winter months. Any hints on that? I'm not sure I have the tools and patience to break mine down like you did ... I only have hand tools, esp drill. Do I have to replace the bearing? where did you get replacement bearings?
I've run in to the same situation on a Z-Master Z597 72". A deck idler pulley bearing was shot. It stuck to the idler arm and had to be pressed out and the bolt in the center snapped off. I ordered 10 of the 6203 2RS bearings for $16 vs using the stock 6203LU bearings (just a brand difference). Toro wants around $20 for one bearing. Anyhow, the pulley with bearing complete is about $20. But I figure, why order a pulley everytime I need only the bearing? So drilling out the rivets and pressing in and out bearings is much more cost affective and convenient (if you own a press). And most, if not all pulley bearings on my mower use the same bearing.
+JAMES johnson Had to grind the rivets out (no drill press). painted the pulley (rustoleum quart primer and metal paint). There were 18 rivets about 1/8" size. Drilled to the 1/4" bolt size. Cost about $10 for the bolts. But saves over the $20 pulley. $26 invested but a lifetime of pulley bearing replacements. It's a diesel mower with about 1400 hours so i hope the engine keeps ticking. This Toro 597Z is constantly going through belts and pulley related parts.
Do you know if there is supposed to be a spacer on the top of an idler gear and bottom on a Troy Bilt riding lawn mower. When it was taken off, I did not notice that there was, but when I reinstalled the front Idler gear, it either binds on the top as I tighten it or the bottom.
Thank You for the video and the information. I have a john deere Z225A 42 inch cut. Would these bearings work for me? Any information would be great. Again Thank You.
Cool Video, How'd you remove the spacer for the pulley from inside the bearing? I'm trying to replace the Pulley with a sprocket & need to remove that spacer to put it in an Idler sprocket.
Just did mine this way yesterday. Place the shouldered side facing down and space up on some solid blocks. Get a punch or piece of steel rod that is smaller than then bearing inner diameter and hit with a hammer. [If you have a press can setup the same way]. Being the bearing is already trashed, stresses to the bearing inner race is not an issue.
@@dankroetsch8713 cool thanks, I'll keep that in mind, the bearing in the pulley was still good & I was putting that spacer into a brand new bearing for a sprocket, I ended up having a mechanic remove the spacer from the bearing in the pulley & using a vice to put the spacer in the bearing for the sprocket, now for my mower I have to work on having hubs fabricated for the drive gears on the deck assembly, I cut the center of the drive pulleys out with a 2" bi metal hole saw, but I need have that duplicated in High Carbon Steel for a hub.
Yessir mu grandpa taught me to use watt I had n if there was a way to cleanup something an reuse then rebuild it reuse it wattever it takes some things may vant but lots can an that's how I am use ya head for something beside a hat rack
Good Video. But before you do all that. Check Tractor Supply first. Some of the Pulley is not worth doing it. Time + Labor + Coffee = Better Buying !!!
For my MTD tractor the pulleys cost about 35$ (per pulley). Also I do this once and the next time it will be way easier to change the bearings. Worth it IMO.
I am 63 years old and I love it been rebuilding parts for many years you pay I'll play I probably got that $6 one of my pulleys but anyway have a good day
