Never saw anyone remove the plastic cover. Been told all my life you can only grease the shaft; which is true unless one removes the cover to allow grease into the bearing. Excellent video.
They don't all just pull right out of the spindle housing..sometimes you must leave the nut on the threaded side and hit the nut side with a hammer to make bearing pop out..then the shaft can come out.
very good. suggestion/pro tip: apply anti-seize compound to the metal dust ring and also on the spindle nut and bolt. Do the same with the threads and mating surfaces on the blades. This will prevent corrosion and rust and make it so much easier for blade replacement and other spindle maintenance. Also put a rubber boot dust cover on the zerk fitting...because it is under the deck where all the water and grass is happening, you want to protect the zerk grease fitting. some people just apply rtv silicone on a clean zerk fitting..24 hours later it creates a simple "jacket" of rubberized silicone. you can easily peel this off when it's time to grease the zerk!
It's funny how the bearings are sealed and yet has a grease fitting. If you didn't know to expose the bearings the grease would be useless. Good way to get you to replace spindles all the time. Thanks!
I seen a video of a guy take on and show the bearing sealed , puts it bask together and did around 30 pumps of grease then take it back apart and removed the seal and grease had went in. It squeezed through t he edge I guess . I have some more spindles coming and I'm gonna do my own experiment to see for myself
In theory it seems I can remove the blade and the pulley leaving spindle body in place, No? Also you probably should have packed the bearing with Grease and the empty area inside the spindle body, seeing that the Drain Hole is located below the Bearing, and may not allow the Bearing to get greased completely. Then run a Self Tapping screw in the hole to keep grease in and dirt out. I am forever wearing out that Star part of the spindle and wish it was part if the nut if needed to keep the blade from spinning on the spindle. By chance I have had to change the entire spindle assembly and have the old one on the shelf with a Basically new Spindle shaft in it and bearings. So with the advice in your video, I know now to just order one more Spindle Shaft and not 2 entire Spindle Assemblies to replace the worn ones on my Machine. Thanks!
What kills these bearings the most is people ( I once was in this group) wash their mower decks with the garden hose after a mow. They rust the bearings out fast. Dried bearings with dirt is a close second. Keep dirt and water out . Like you said they will last for a very long time, otherwise.
I have seen MTD spindles a few times. My Cub Cadet has spindles that look like yours. They may even be the same part number. Bearings can take a heck of a beating and so they sometimes fail a lot. Then you have people who claim to have never needed to grease theirs and they lasted a surprisingly long time. I am one of those ones who believes in greasing them. I don't really like parts without Zerk fittings. Even the best greases need replenishing once in a while.
The ones that have no fittings have sealed bearings. There is a plastic seal on both sides of the bearings that keeps the grease confined around the bearing. The ones you grease only have a plastic seal on the outside and the inside of the bearing is open so it needs grease which is slung up onto them constantly as the blades spin. I have the sealed bearings but do add some grease to the cavity when replacing the bearings. I found that if you put too much grease the pressure will tend to restrict the shaft a bit so it is harder to turn. While you don't need to worry about greasing the sealed bearings, eventually they do wear out. You definitely need to periodically add grease to the ones with grease fittings.
Thanks for the great info. Just tore down the spindles for my 2007 LTX1040. Similar but they have toothed belt. That is so curious about the zerk on there. It was bone dry inside never saw grease with seals on both sides of both bearings. I think they are still sound with some TLC and I will remove one side seal and pump it full. I was just perusing for info on rounded star bosses. My blades jump sync and start clanking each other.Once they do that they'll always do that. I'm thinking of putting a couple bolts thru into the spindle flange. I really should make some kind of video for that.
It's crazy that they leave the bearing seals in there then have grease. The grease won't find it's way where it needs to go. So remove the inner seal then your fine, the bearing NOW are lubricated. On your other comment, perhaps your gears are worn or they are sloppy some how on why it jumps a tooth on you. I not familiar with that set up. But by looking at it anything can be fixed with a little thought behind it. Shim the gears closer?
@@007connecticut I spent the day trying to fix where the blades bolt to the spindle on the raised star-shaped thing that should keep it from rotating on the spindle. The star is worn and rounded from it slipping a notch now and then. That's how they get out of sync. The timing belt and gears are fine. I think it is this way because sometimes I mow the empty lot next door and the tyhicker grass puts a load on the blade a lot greater than normal. What I did was weld the blade to the end of the spindle where the mounting bolt would go (took it all apart first) then I cut off the blade ends leaving a 4" section on the spindle that will neatly cradle another blade. This has a hole on each side of the center to which I can bolt a new blade. Kinda makeshift but I'm sure it will work. Plus I don't want to spend a couple hundred bucks on new spindle assemblies. Everyone in the neighborhood was out mowing today but me. BTW are you from CT? I grew up in Greenwich exit 5.
@@cspann831 Rained most of the day here as I have paint and still can't paint because of the crappy weather on the weekends. Yes I'm off 84 in Cheshire. Machines are expensive and most store box ones are throw away units that are made to last 5 - 10 years. Commercial machines cost a lot but it's the way to go if you can afford them, I updated my yard equipment for the last time. Retirement is coming and I don't plan to live in this state when that time comes.
when you were reassembling it and put the shaft in and reached for the bushing i was like yelling "DUST COVER! DONT FORGET THE DUST COVVEERRRR!" hahahaha....
if its wear out the housing. its SHOT Gr8 ideal using the blade to tighten and un tighten but i would use a blade nut to hold it Just keeps from buggering up the blade spline
That's why I use an impact gun. They make real nice electric ones today. You don't need to hold the blade taking it off with the impact gun. The snap of the tool breaks the nut loose easily.
For all my life I was running Sears tractors until the last one wasn't a bit reliable.A real money pit. I repaired what keeps breaking and sold it. So I needed to replace it. I went to Home Depot and scoped the Deere and Cub out. They are both made with thin gauge metal but to me the Cub was more comfortable to sit on. The fuel injection concerned me but I figured it's only a lawn mower so it won't start I can look into the issue and do the grass with the other lawn mower until I fixed it. The fuel injection on the cub is 100% as of now and I'm pleased with the lawn tractor. I don't know if your paying more for the green paint because some of the metal on deere is very thin. Notice the hitch plate in the rear for example, the cub is thicker in that location. Husqvarna I'm sure are well made but I never looked at one in person as there are no dealers in my area to compare them to the other makes. The best lawn mowers today are the commercial machines like Scag, Toro, dixie chopper etc. They run heavy gauge frames and decks and have zerk fittings everywhere. My primary machine is a Scag. That is a Sherman tank. If you have a large yard and want a trouble free lawnmower buy a commercial unit. You will pay more but they have more power, cut better and will last you a lifetime if serviced yearly.
@@rondail5675 It's a good tractor, you will like it.. The only bad thing is the Bees will follow you in your yard as they are attracted to the yellow paint. Thanks for watching.
I would expect the bearings to be able to slide on the spindle. I would assume the pulley to be removable if not the spindle would make it very expensive to make or replace. Maybe there is a set screw holding it together? Maybe just rust. Use a torch or penetrating oil on the parts.
I have almost that exact same Babco vise on my bench, except mine is a 135. I think that number represents the maximum usable opening between the jaws in millimeters. I know that has nothing to do with this video...
I have a Honda Harmony H1011S rider with a single 30" blade. I am told that the spindle shaft comes out the opposite way....up toward the pulley. Have you ever worked on one of these?
Great Video -Just curious, is it a good Idea to to fill the mandrel cavity with grease and then pump some more into the fitting?. I know it is not the space shuttle, but what would be the best grease to use ?
Any grease I suppose would work, but on commercial zero turn machines they use a high temp lithium grease on the spindles, red in color. I purchased mine from Napa auto
Thanks for the very helpful video, I was contemplating how a grease zerk does any good if the bearings are sealed. Any recommendations for torque spec when putting the pulling back into the spindle?
The shaft has a spline or key on it so the pulley won't spin even if the nut is not tightened down much. I would tighten it down 50 - 70 ft pounds would be fine. I always use a impact gun and snap it a few times so hand tight is really all that is needed.
My bearing spindle is identical to yours. Question, mine however will not go back together as easy as yours is there a possibility that there could be two different size bearings?
It's more likely that your housing is a tighter fit. These things are mass produced my the cheapest supplier so if the bearings are the same it's the housing that is oversized or made right. I recall mine ( the new one I played with) nearly fell apart so mine was made on a Friday
My former lawn tractor was a large Sears 48" machine. It didn't have grease points on the spindles. I learned how to take them apart with this machine. I would wash the deck after every mowing before i parked it clean into my garage (to keep the mice away) Every hundred hours the bearings were making noise, so I had to drop the deck and replace the spindles. On that machine there was no way to put grease fittings because it was a cheaper design so the bearing were exposed to the dirt and water. You can tell if the bearings are getting bad without the noise my simply touching the housings. If they are very hot the bearings are binding up about to cease up.
@@StingerSecSol I 100% serious, use an air powered impact gun and it comes apart easy. If you try wrench or ratchet to take rusty parts apart your just going to have a crappy time. The shitty part is sliding the deck out from under the machine, or maybe putting it back on depending on your mood.... Thanks for watching. I earned .001 cent! LOL Google is freaking cheap....
On my newer cub cadet machine (with a 2 blade deck) it needs a 15/16 socket to remove the blades. To remove the pulleys 1 is a 15/16 socket and the other pulleys use a 14mm socket. Most MTD designs are the same or very similar. Thanks for watching.
Ok, take a bar or some time of punch and tap / drive out the old bearings. Strike 180 degrees apart as to not cock the bearing. Clean up the housing with sand paper. Remove any nick's in the housing then press in the new bearings like how you drove them out. They should go together a lot easier then coming apart because the dirt or rust is cleaned up.
This is some bad info. If the spindle is old it will take more work than most folks want to try to get the old bearings out. This guy is demoing with a new spindle. Shame.
Oliver you are so wrong. It is nothing to take these bearings out. Take a punch or any hard object and strike it with a hammer against the bearings a time or two and they will slide right out. Sometimes they come out with finger pressure. The spindles that do not have grease fittings have bearings that are sealed on both sides so the grease stays on the bearings. They are also easy to change. The only thing is that it may be wise just to buy a spindle if you can get one cheap enough as the shafts sometimes warp if you have ran it with a bad bearing. You roll the shaft on a smooth surface to see if it is true and straight before replacing bearings. If it is crooked it will run crooked and wear new bearings faster and the pulley may wobble a little causing belt to twitch or jump. Also if you just intend to change the bearings do not remove the spindle from the deck, because they use hard brittle bolts that thread into the spindle housing about an inch. So they usually break off at the heads before coming out. It is near impossible to drill them out. Leave the spindle on the deck. Block off the blade and remove the top nut and pulley, and the whole shaft will come out through the bottom. If installing a new spindle do not reuse old bolts if they do not break, as they likely will break when re- torqueing them. Buy some good quality bolts with same threads from a hardware store. Put a little grease or anti seize compound on them, so they don't break if you take them back off in the future. Buy parts on line as Repair shops will rip you a new one.
Got your email reply. The reason I commented that way is folks at the local tractor shop told me that even their techs struggle for hours to get the bearings out. I'm going to take your article to them. If I'm wrong I apologize. Maybe both myself and the techs will learn a new trick. Otherwise, they lied to me. If they did they caused me to scrap my mower deck because the new spindles I ordered (twice) were not the right ones. The mower (LT 3800 Huskee) was around eight years old. Still, I could have probably got another couple of years out of it.
Just did this. Took me about five minutes to get it apart. Use some fine emery cloth to clean up the shaft. Screw the nut onto the shafts until it is flush and then tap a few times with a hammer. Popped right out.
Zed is correct in regards to getting the bearings out,even if the spindle housing was steel.I'm curious to know what the tractor shop was going on about,as hours ? is exaggerating.It doesn't even take hours to get a rear axle & then the bearing off a motor vehicle..lol..The downside to the housing in the video that's off an mtd/yard man is that since the housing is of ally construction.The vibration & centrifugal force of the blades,wears out the seat where the bearings sit.Its the only reason you'd buy new ones.There's no point replacing the bearings.Assuming you've kept up with maintenance & pumped grease in,the bearings will last till they flog the housing out,by which time you will have to buy new ones.The spindle itself should be fine,unless the blade/s have hit solid objects in which case 1 or more of the stars could be damaged,so in essence you could get away with just a housing & use the old spindle with new bearings.I normally just buy the units whole.If the housing was steel it is possible there will be an issue getting the bearings out due to rust & it can be somewhat of a bugger,tho nothing really time consuming or to bs a customer.
