Mower deck wash ?

[RandyT]

Sealed bearings (as shown) really are sealed. Shielded bearings are not.

The seal of a sealed bearing as shown in the spindle bearing video keeps grease in the bearing which would be thrown out in normal use. It is not a robust seal to protect against the elements. Disappointing that mower spindles do not have an external 2nd seal the way motorcycles and ATVs have. Even street motorcycles.

I have seen a few Country Clipper spindles. Sealed bearings. No zerk fittings. The zerk fittings in the video are useless but for “feel good” factor. Make someone feel good about doing the right thing servicing their machine without actually doing anything useful. Just like ethanol in gasoline makes people believe they are saving the environment or something.

The external seal on motorcycle and ATV wears and quits sealling. Otherwise it does a good job protecting against “cold water”. Even worn it provides a shield lessening the amount of crud reaching the bearing seal. The right thing to do installing new or prepping a new motorcycle is to pack the space between sealed bearing and external seal with waterproof/marine grease. This lubricates the seal and provides yet another barrier before crud can reach the bearing.

The wrong headed person in the video did not bend the spindle tapping on it with a soft hammer. Is not the preferable means to extract a bearing one wishes to reuse, a purist would use a press. The issue is hitting the inner race of bearing to extract the outer race. Ball bearings are held to millionths of an inch, little things matter. But I am far from convinced his hammer abused the bearing anywhere near what the bearing gets holding a blade hitting things we all hit with mowers no matter how much care. Motorcycle wheel bearings are usually much tighter in the hub and very likely to be destroyed using a drift to drive out from the inner race. If I remove, I replace with new. I can pull the outer seal to inspect, clean, and/or add grease without removing the bearing.

The primary reason to add grease to bearings is to push crud out of the bearing. No way is the pressure of grease going to push his bearings out when clamped on both ends by the spindle. Seals without supplementary retainers will come out, which is bad. Is desirable to push old grease out the seal. His stupid weep hole is exactly the thing which will vent pressure preventing new grease from reaching his bearings.

Many motorcyclists rant about how little grease they find in “cheap” sealed wheel bearings, even in premium brand new motorcycles and OE replacement bearings. It doesn’t take much grease to do the job and too much grease in a high speed bearing only pops the seals out. “Too much” is ok in a low speed bearing.

The guy in the video would of been better off just removing the seal in the bottom bearing and left the top bearing alone. With his weep hole or even without unless the cavity is filled the top bearing will never get lubed. And contrary to our resident machinist I have bent more then one shaft trying to remove it from those style AYP spindles with a rubber mallet. Have had to start using a wooden block to remove and reinstall them if I plan on keep the shaft. Just too many cases of just need bearings and the shaft appears straight evident by no wobble in the blade. and tapping the shaft out with a black rubber mallet, and installing new bearings and tapping the shaft back in with a rubber mallet and now the blade wobbles. Some of the JD spindles I have to press them apart and press them back together and even then that sometimes bends the shaft. MTD/ Cub Cadet shafts seems to take a little more abuse.

 

[4570Man]

If you bend a shaft taking it apart with a hammer it was junk to start with. What happens to it when the blade is spinning and hitting stuff beside grass. I’ve been fairly hard on my mower and I’ve never bent a shaft.

 

[ning]

for all the people saying your spindles will be destroyed.. my mower is from 2000, has 600 hours on it, and the spindles are original. i have been washing the deck for 10 years. if i had to buy new spindles every 10 years i would do it, just in the convivence alone. my spindles are fine.

i also have it added to 3 push mowers, and my mothers mower, for the last 5 years. still original.

I don't even understand why people think it will cause a failure, they are sealed bearings, not in the spray path, yes they get wet, but its not like they are pressure washer directed angles.

The first spindles on my mower lasted 13 years and idk how many hundreds of hours and it wasn't until they were wobbling and the blades hitting each other that I replaced them and belatedly learned about grease zerks, but anecdotally I wouldn't suggest people not grease their spindles

My spindles - original and replacements - absolutely did not have "sealed bearings".

 

[bmg88201]

I really confused. Don’t wash the deck, okay to wash the deck, remove inner bearing seals, don’t remove seals, grease the spindles, greasing spindles does nothing, put a weep hole in the spindle, don’t put a weep hole in it.

All I know is I get about 300 hours on my spindles and have to replace them. Just put in the second set of spindles at 610 hours ( JD spindles ). I keep my blades balanced and sharp, I put 2 or 3 shots of grease in the spindles a couple of times in the mowing season. What the heck ? Too little grease, too much grease, no grease, UGH !!!!!

 

[stuckmotor]

BMG88201,
We're both confused. I've had my Snapper Rear Engine Rider for over 16 years and have never replaced the spindle. For the first 15 of those years, I gave the spindle 10 pumps every so often with grease gun. A year or so back I began seeing Youtube presentations about sealed bearings and pumping in grease being a waste of grease. I might have greased it once since. Did I waste grease for 15 years? Well, when I removed the belt cover, there was a good bit of grease under the pulley but I don't think it was fifteen years worth. Yep, I'm confused too.

 

[Richard001]

I really confused. Don’t wash the deck, okay to wash the deck, remove inner bearing seals, don’t remove seals, grease the spindles, greasing spindles does nothing, put a weep hole in the spindle, don’t put a weep hole in it.

All I know is I get about 300 hours on my spindles and have to replace them. Just put in the second set of spindles at 610 hours ( JD spindles ). I keep my blades balanced and sharp, I put 2 or 3 shots of grease in the spindles a couple of times in the mowing season. What the heck ? Too little grease, too much grease, no grease, UGH !!!!!

It would be interesting to know what your found to be the problem with your spindles that you had to replace. Did you do an analysis on them ?

 

[bmg88201]

I would like to know also. The grease zert is on the top of the shaft and is pressed in, not threaded in. I can’t tap the shaft out without crushing the zert even with a nut threaded on the shaft to protect the threads. I could get it done with a press, but I don’t have a press. I think JD did that on purpose to make it difficult to rebuild the spindle. The option would be to drill and tap a hole in the side for a new zert, that way I could knock the shaft out regardless of ruining the zert in the top of the shaft. Oh well, I guess I’ll get new spindles after the next 300 hours.

 

[Grumpycat]

I find it hard to believe there is steel soft enough one can bend a 5/8” diameter shaft with a rubber or plastic mallet. Yet strong enough to withstand impacts a spinning mower blade encounters.

I think the shaft was bent before the mallet appeared.

IIRC the cheap Country Clipper spindle shafts are 7/8”. The more expensive models are 1” or even 1-1/8”. Then reduced at end to fit blade.

 

[tomplum]

Top zerk spindles, the shafts can be driven out w/ a deep well socket with the nut threaded on the shaft. The issue w/ X series is that some have kind of a bell shaped spacer which makes it difficult to drive the old bearing out. It can be done though. I have an oval bearing driver that I use.

 

[RandyT]

I find it hard to believe there is steel soft enough one can bend a 5/8” diameter shaft with a rubber or plastic mallet. Yet strong enough to withstand impacts a spinning mower blade encounters.

I think the shaft was bent before the mallet appeared.

IIRC the cheap Country Clipper spindle shafts are 7/8”. The more expensive models are 1” or even 1-1/8”. Then reduced at end to fit blade.

This spindle shaft has a 5 point star for the blade adapter. Missing that adapter when installing the blade even with a ratchet will mushroom the star were the blade will not fit the adapter. Do it with an impact wrench and you are replacing the shaft. And that should be a hardened part of the shaft.

Taking apart a new spindle may not be bad. Doing the same to a several year old spindle where water has gotten into the bearing cavity, and you will be lucky to salvage the housing. And trying to remove the housing from the deck is guaranteed to have the bolts break off. What is even better is breaking off a new self tapping mounting bolt in a new spindle before it even completely tightens down.