Rear Finish Mower What kind of bearing?

[searay]

Finally, after days of leaving the shaft under pressure in the press, and tapping the spindle housing with a hammer, the shaft and bottom bearing popped out of the housing with a loud bang! The spindle surface at the area where the pulley resided had some rust and corrosion. Again, I found the metal seal rusted through in places and the bearing very noticeably rough.
I have to ask again, should I buy bearings sealed both sides and install them as-is without removing the rubber seal and filling the cavity with grease? Will the manufacturers grease in the sealed bearings be sufficient to last five years?

mike69440, I just can't afford 6 of those bearings at about $70 each.

Thanks again to everyone who posted suggestions trying to help.

 

[LD1]

IF it has a grease fitting where you can pump grease in, remove the inner seal.

IF there is no grease fitting to get grease in there after the initial install, leave them sealed.

 

[leonz]

After all this I would just buy new Woods spindles with bearings from Flail Master as press fit bearings are very difficult to remove.

The bearings are heated with a bearing heater and then placed on the shaft to cool and shrink fit and the spindle shafts will be bad anyway after that many mowing seasons especially since your stressing the spindle shafts by pressing them cold.

 

[searay]

After all this I would just buy new Woods spindles with bearings from Flail Master as press fit bearings are very difficult to remove.

The bearings are heated with a bearing heater and then placed on the shaft to cool and shrink fit and the spindle shafts will be bad anyway after that many mowing seasons especially since your stressing the spindle shafts by pressing them cold.

After talking with someone at a bearing distrubitor, I decided to use the appropriate sealed bearing. After mowing through three full seasons and a partial season this year (2019) there have been no issues with the sealed bearings. At this point I think it's safe to say "no maintenance required" sealed bearings are OK to use in place of the "regular greasing required" type in this particular application.

searay