2011 LX410 front hub bearing failure.

TnAndy · Oct 8, 2019

2011 LX410 with 1850hrs

Went to use the tractor Monday and noticed a puddle of lube on the floor, had run down the right side tire inside. Removed wheel/tire and checked to make sure the ring of bolts was tight around the plate that hold the hub....hoping maybe they had come loose enough to allow leakage there. (BTW.....that hub housing has a big O ring, not a flat gasket....the hub housing can be pulled out 1/4-3/8" and still won't leak until you get it out enough to clear that O ring....then fluid gushes out) Refilled with 80-90w gear oil, and drove around the farm a bit. Pulled back in shop, fluid pouring out.

Got out my flash drive that has the parts manual on it, looked it up...looked like it much be a seal on the inside where the hub shaft comes out. Called the place I buy part from (1 1/2 drive from here), ordered the seal, and added the bearing + big O ring on the hub housing....figuring as long as I was in there, that bearing would be easy to stick on. Turns out, that was the correct move....because that bearing was falling apart, and the ring on the inside of the bearing that holds the balls in place had come apart, and that cut the seal, causing it to leak. Good thing it did leak I guess, if the bearing had come on apart, might have caused other stuff to mess up.

Parts supposed to drop ship to me today or tomorrow....fairly easy fix and I should be back in business.

Interesting to note.....the inner bearing, which was fine, was Japanese.....NACHI brand. The outer bearing which failed was Korean....KBC brand.

Hub housing & O ring:

Hub, outer bearing (left), seal, inner bearing (right) and split keeper ring that holds the outer bearing in place.

Closeup of failed bearing....you can see why it carved up the seal.

Page out of parts manual I printed. Parts manuals are SO handy.....and makes it very easy to order parts on the phone when you have the part number.

tier4 · Oct 10, 2019

pre mature bearing failure as you pictures show is generally caused by no rear ballast to much pressure on front axle without offset rear ballast either ballast box or fluid in tires

TnAndy · Oct 10, 2019

Or the use of cheap Korean bearings.......

Roadworthy · Oct 10, 2019

There will be numbers stamped on the bearings - they are not unique to your tractor. Any bearing supplier can provide replacement bearings. If you have the dimensions the same goes for the large O ring seal.

TnAndy · Oct 10, 2019

The numbers I wrote on the page out of the parts manual were off the bearings. The seal had no numbers (neither did the new one that came, I looked). Ordered that big O ring, but re-used the old one as it looked fine.

I ordered the parts Monday around noon, they came from Yanmar in Georgia the next day UPS around 3pm. Hour of work and I had it back together, but had to run to town for some 80-90w gear oil.....takes about 2 gallons.

Katahdin · Nov 3, 2019

Thank you for the excellent pics and write-up, as usual!

A farmer down the street from me blew out the front bearings on both sides of a similar vintage 55hp New Holland. Suspected root cause was delivering firewood by the pallet load to a customer in the neighborhood. Perhaps the load oscillating on paved surfaces had something to do with it. I recall the out-of-pocket costs to have the work done at a dealer was around $1100! Being that New Holland was produced in S.Korea, perhaps those bearings were too!

TnAndy · Jan 30, 2020

AND now...maybe 30hrs later, the other side (left) is doing the same thing....pretty good leak. Ordered the bearing/seal and will swap it out as soon as I get the parts in. Not having taken it apart yet, don't know if the bearing is the problem, but it's getting replaced as long as I'm into it.

TnAndy · Feb 14, 2020

Took over 2 weeks to get the bearing and seal. According to the dealer I ordered it from, it was backordered. I got it today, BUT I'd already put in a new bearing (which I don't think was bad, but taking no chance while I had it apart).

If you look at the parts breakdown above, you'll see the Yanmar part number for the seal in the left column, then on the right side it gives a number QLNY527514.5. Well, in trying to find a seal at local bearing place (Motion Industries), guy told me that is a 52mm inside diameter, 75mm outside diameter and 14.5mm thick measured on the edge. He could find one anywhere to match, but could come up with same 52x75, but 12mm thick. So I got on the internet and hunted for couple hours. Couldn't find one either, but several sources of the 12mm version.

So not knowing when I was going to get the Yanmar seal, and the internet version was $14, I thought I'd try one, along with the internet bearing $33. It went back together fine, I sure can't see where that 2.5mm extra clearance between the bearing and the seal is going to make a lick of difference, but time will tell I guess.

Today, I got the bearing/seal from the Yanmar dealer UPS. Seal was $86 !!!!....for a dang seal !!! The bearing was $37, which isn't too bad over what I paid, and then $14 UPS shipping. So $136/change versus $47 I paid on Amazon, shipped free with my Prime. I sure hope that 12mm holds, as I said, time will tell. Yanmar stuff went on the shelf for spare.

AND get this....the reason the seal failed this time was not the bearing. Near as I could tell, it was fine....no visible damage, spun free, no noise, no binding. What I think got the seal was a dang piece of plastic net wrap off a round hay bail. I've had the stuff wind up before around moving parts, but never thought about it working it's way into a wheel seal !

Once I got the shaft out of the ring gear, you could see a piece of that plastic string up in the seal, and a gob of it wound around the base of the shaft where it goes up against the seal. When assembled, the clearance between the back of the wheel hub and the housing that holds the seal, bearing, ring gear, etc is almost none....that plastic string had worked it's way in there tight and I guess the rotation of the hub/shaft simply acted like a corkscrew to work it into the seal. Never liked net wrap, and guarantee that I'll never buy another round bale with that crap on it.