replacing bearing etc on landpride fd1548 finish mower

[sacsr]

Bought a landpride FD1548 last week. I knew the two top tension pulleys were shot....and expected I needed to replace the bearing on the spindles while I was working on it.....pulleys were easy to take off......starting working on the blades......bolt turned- blade held by block.....but the bolt and spindle was turning rather than the bolt coming loose??????

I assumed it was a normal thread.....did I assume wrong???

Deck is pretty good on top.....but pretty rusty on the bottom.....looks like the blades have never been taken off....

Anybody already replaced these bearings??? Can I just knock the spindle down from the top??? I have replaced spindles and bearings in decks before....this is a newer one and just don't want to make a mistake.

Any help/suggestions would be appreciated.

thanks