Steering on Cub Cadet SLT 1554

[muleman1]

Anybody ever replace the bearings on the steering column on one of these? Looks like there are two of them, one at the bottom and one attached to a bracket bolted to the battery tray. I've ordered the parts from MTD, but now I'm concerned that this thing is like an old VW bug.....the engine has to come out to do any work on it! Other ideas?

 

[muleman1]

Doesn't seem to be a lot of interest in this post....but I was able get the steering column loose and replace the lower bearing on this mower. I removed the mower deck and loosened the flange nut on the bottom end of the steering column. This allowed the whole thing to be pulled up enough to get the bearing out.
The "bearing" turned out to be nut shaped collar made out of pot metal that I'm sure will egg out again in a couple of seasons. Overall, this repair has made me realize that this mower isn't put together as good as I thought. You get what you pay for.....