Squaling Finish Mower

shane · May 23, 2010

Hey Guys, I sure hope someone can help me because I am stumped (I am not a great mechanic to begin with).

I have a Landpride FDR 1560 finish mower. It has performed flawless for over ten years since I've owned it. I've had to replace the belt once and fixed a couple of flats. I've always kept everything greased according to specs.

This year the main pulley below the gear box had to be replaced. It was made from stamped steel and cracked around the shaft. The new drive pulley is cast.

Before replacing the old drive pulley I was noticing every now and them some kind of racket from the mower. When the drive pulley went south, I attributed the previous racket to that pulley.

Now, there is a squalling noise that sounds similar to a belt slipping. I replaced the belt thinking that with the new pulley that maybe that would cure the problem. The new belt would not stay on at first until I tightened the idler spring some, not much.

All the spindles and idler pulleys spin freely, smooth, and quiet by hand. The gear box has the right amount of oil. The pto shaft has always been greased according to schedule as well.

I don't think I've left any of the details off. Any ideas???

beenthere · May 23, 2010

I would suspect a bearing in a spindle is bad, and not noticable when spinning by hand.
If so, I'd let it squeal. Might check the temperature of the spindles after running hard for a while, and see if there is evidence of a heated bearing.

whistlepig · May 23, 2010

How is the belt tensioned?

zzvyb6 · May 23, 2010

Run it with the covers off to see and hear where the noise is coming from. If the new drive pulley is a different pitch or diameter, then the belt is not very tight when its under load and may be hitting the backside of the idler. A bearing going bad would growl more than squeal. I assume the new drive drive pulley is set at the correct height above the deck, if not, then there will be some wear tell-tales.

whistlepig · May 23, 2010

A little grease on the wrong place on a belt can cause a lot of grief.

jimmysisson · May 24, 2010

Are you noticing this noise under load only, or no-load? Do the blades stop under heavy load? Did you use a belt dressing (sometimes the stickiness is noisy)? Mist a little water on the belt while it's running (tractor stationary) and see if that changes the noise, isolating the noise to the belt. Sounds like a belt noise, not pulleys or bearings, as zz says. Do this safely!
Jim

shane · May 24, 2010

I believe I have found the culprit to be a bearing in one of the spindles. I removed the belt and gave each spindle a good spin by hand. One on the outside right standing behind the unit had a different feel to it and I could hear a slight growl.

As I mentioned before, I'm no great mechanic. I have remove the spindle from the mower. How do I go about getting the spindle apart if I want to just replace the bearings? The guy at the parts dealer says you can just replace the bearings and not the whole spindle if you can get it apart. He went on to say that they are a real bear to get apart.

I have not priced the bearings but the best price I have been able to find so far on the whole spindle assembly is $124.00.

Thanks for all your thoughts.

zzvyb6 · May 25, 2010

If you can get the bearings out, there are quite a few on-line bearing suppliers that can provide you with new ones at a considerable cost savings.

Its time to be a mechanics, find one or pay for one. What's it going to be?
The Landpride website shows your mower. The hub is held in place by 4 bolts. Probably need to remove the pulley to get a wrench on the nuts. Once you have the spindle out, there are 2 identical bearings (although a revised part number suggests a better shield). Its a 6206 bearing. I've bought a few from vxb.com. Once you have the numbers on your bearings, they can find a cross reference.

Hurry. The grass is growing !

zzvyb6 · May 25, 2010

BTW: Your 6206 bearing appears on VXB as a 30 x 62 x 16 sheilded bearing for $6.95 apiece. So pay a few hundred bucks of pay a dozen+ bucks.

shane · May 25, 2010

Well, zzvyb6, the old bearing are out and the new ones are ordered. Playing with it as I was disassembling it, seems the top bearing is the absolute culprit.

I got a long ways to go on becoming handy at fixin' stuff, but I'll keep trying. Thanks for the help and advice.