ZD1211 Spindles and Grease

[Rob in Ontario]

How much grease is too much on the spindles of a ZD1211 or similar.? I feel like I'm greasing too much. User manual says to grease until it 'overflows'. Okay, but overflows from where?

I don't have a picture of it but under the deck at the blade on each spindle, there is a 'cup' has a 1/4" hole. Obviously greasing from the zerk on the top of the spindle/pulley - I've seen where some have said to grease the spindle until it oozes out of that hole. This is similar to my previous Toro ZTR so that's what I've been doing.

However I'm finding that grease then comes out and sits underneath each pulley above the deck. I do try to clean enough that it doesn't get onto the belt.

FWIW, I've got about 75Hrs and when I got it from the Dealer, I noticed there was enough grease on each to be visible within the 6 holes on top of each pulley.

Any thoughts? Go easy on me if I'm doing it wrong

 

[mikester]

When you have grease blobs on the floor you have used enough. Look under the deck at the spindles.

My old landpride has a sticker saying use 10 pumps

 

[RjCorazza]

I have 750 hours on my ZD1211 and use 6 shots per spindle every 30-40 hours. I have followed the same interval on my ZD326 with 1700 hours, and a previous ZD331 that I put 1200 hours on.

 

[turbo246]

I have never seen grease overflow off mine and I have pumped a lot in

 

[ruffdog]

I agree with the other's here. I might use 5 pumps every 20 hours on the spindles. One thing I have to say...it seems the dealer at least greased it before delivery. It is a big deal because the initial greasing has to fill the voids before it overflows.

 

[WoodDuck]

The spindles on my Ferris IS3200 are huge. I pump grease into them until it starts to come out around the upper seal underneath the pulley on the top side of the deck. Then run a rag underneath the pulley and "floss out" any excess. Don't want a big pile of grease under there migrating up onto your pulleys and belts. Under-lubed spindles cause way more problems than over-lubed ones.

 

[Brown Dog]

The bearings are probably sealed bearings so the grease is just a little insurance

 

[Gem99ultra]

As Brown Dog said, greasing thru the zerks probably has little effect. After watching on YouTube the process of greasing spindles, most or all are 'sealed' bearings. The only thing one accomplishes when just shooting grease in the zerks is filling the void in the spindle.

The only way to ensure greasing those bearings is to take the spindle off and removing the seal on the bearing, then manually filling the bearing with grease. At best otherwise all one accomplishes is putting grease on top of one side of the bearing, not 'in' the bearing itself.

I've greased the spindles on mine before both via the zerk and also by opening the spindle up and manually greasing the bearing, then putting the seal back. That's a lot of work removing the spindle just to get some grease in the bearing, so I'm 'hoping' someone on here can verify that I'm dead wrong in the info.

 

[big bubba]

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Gem99ultra​

Veteran Member​

Joined May 18, 2009 Messages 2,067 Location Mid-Georgia Tractor Kubota L3400HST






"As Brown Dog said, greasing thru the zerks probably has little effect. After watching on YouTube the process of greasing spindles, most or all are 'sealed' bearings. The only thing one accomplishes when just shooting grease in the zerks is filling the void in the spindle." Gem99ultra

good point. but why would manufacturer go to extra expense to include zerks on spindles if that's the case?

 

[arto98607]

Good commercial mowers have spindles etc. that can be easily lubricated.

I have bought two used ones, but both required some rebuilding due to high usage hours.



Conical roller bearings (standard trailer wheel-bearings)

 

[duffer]

As Brown Dog said, greasing thru the zerks probably has little effect. After watching on YouTube the process of greasing spindles, most or all are 'sealed' bearings. The only thing one accomplishes when just shooting grease in the zerks is filling the void in the spindle.

The only way to ensure greasing those bearings is to take the spindle off and removing the seal on the bearing, then manually filling the bearing with grease. At best otherwise all one accomplishes is putting grease on top of one side of the bearing, not 'in' the bearing itself.

I've greased the spindles on mine before both via the zerk and also by opening the spindle up and manually greasing the bearing, then putting the seal back. That's a lot of work removing the spindle just to get some grease in the bearing, so I'm 'hoping' someone on here can verify that I'm dead wrong in the info.

You are 100% right. Most spindles in all kinds of equipment use sealed bearings. Pumping the void around them is a waste of time and money.

Sealed bearings are not supposed to have to be greased, but the reality is, they do !

 

[4570Man]

You are 100% right. Most spindles in all kinds of equipment use sealed bearings. Pumping the void around them is a waste of time and money.

Sealed bearings are not supposed to have to be greased, but the reality is, they do !

I had to put bearings in my mower and once I realized how it was made I saw that greasing them was pointless. I put sealed bearings in and haven’t ever greased them since. If you pulled the inside seal out of the bearings and pumped the inside cavity completely full you could in theory grease the bearings but the problem with that approach is once the cavity is completely full it’s going to push the outside seal of the bearings out. Sealed bearings last a long time with zero maintenance, there’s nothing wrong with that approach. Most vehicle wheel bearings and lots of other equipment has non serviceable bearings and they last a long time.

 

[Doug Vee]

Good commercial mowers have spindles etc. that can be easily lubricated.

I have bought two used ones, but both required some rebuilding due to high usage hours.



Conical roller bearings (standard trailer wheel-bearings)

View attachment 748905 View attachment 748907

Arto,

I replaced the hack job belt tensioning set up that a prior owner made work with the factor T-rod and two springs. I tensioned the assembly per the manual and tested the operation. Upon engagement of the PTO, the deck ran fine for a few seconds, then a heck of a racket ensued! The racket. turned out to be the blade tips of the left and center blades were hitting each other.

Upon close inspection of the spindles, I could detect some play in the left and right spindles. The center one had no play. I assume this play is what caused the blades tips to hit each other. I loosened the spring tension 3/4” and tried it again. The blades cleared and the deck seemed to run okay.

Apparently the spindles are rebuildable? Are the bearings all Kubota parts? The complete assemblies are pretty expensive, so that is not an attractive option to me. Can you point me in the right direction for the parts? I have experience rebuilding boat trailer hub assemblies. The deck is an RC72R-F30.

Thank you,
Doug Vazquez
Shelton, WA

 

[denchen]

I'm a bit `old school` and greasing to me means two things. First you pump in new grease to push out all the old grease and all the crud that has got in there. Second, you leave new grease to lube the bearings. Although the bearings are sealed, they will last much longer in a bed of fresh clean grease than a load of crud. Some equipment now come with `Sealed for life`, funny no one will tell you how long the life is and when you'll have to buy a new one.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

As Brown Dog said, greasing thru the zerks probably has little effect. After watching on YouTube the process of greasing spindles, most or all are 'sealed' bearings. The only thing one accomplishes when just shooting grease in the zerks is filling the void in the spindle.

The only way to ensure greasing those bearings is to take the spindle off and removing the seal on the bearing, then manually filling the bearing with grease. At best otherwise all one accomplishes is putting grease on top of one side of the bearing, not 'in' the bearing itself.

I've greased the spindles on mine before both via the zerk and also by opening the spindle up and manually greasing the bearing, then putting the seal back. That's a lot of work removing the spindle just to get some grease in the bearing, so I'm 'hoping' someone on here can verify that I'm dead wrong in the info.

Grease keeps water out. Water will seep in the lower bearing if water is there. Water will cause rust. Rust will cause failure.

 

[BigPapi]

I saw a video on YouTube and the guy does an experiment and finds that the grease actually does get into the sealed bearings???

 

[arto98607]

Arto,

I replaced the hack job belt tensioning set up that a prior owner made work with the factor T-rod and two springs. I tensioned the assembly per the manual and tested the operation. Upon engagement of the PTO, the deck ran fine for a few seconds, then a heck of a racket ensued! The racket. turned out to be the blade tips of the left and center blades were hitting each other.

Upon close inspection of the spindles, I could detect some play in the left and right spindles. The center one had no play. I assume this play is what caused the blades tips to hit each other. I loosened the spring tension 3/4” and tried it again. The blades cleared and the deck seemed to run okay.

Apparently the spindles are rebuildable? Are the bearings all Kubota parts? The complete assemblies are pretty expensive, so that is not an attractive option to me. Can you point me in the right direction for the parts? I have experience rebuilding boat trailer hub assemblies. The deck is an RC72R-F30.

Thank you,
Doug Vazquez
Shelton, WA

The spindles in RC72R-F30 are certainly easily rebuilt, as long as it's done before housing or spindle shaft gets damaged.

It gets more complicated (costly) if ran until Fubar.

 

[Doug Vee]

The spindles in RC72R-F30 are certainly easily rebuilt, as long as it's done before housing or spindle shaft gets damaged.

It gets more complicated (costly) if ran until Fubar.

Arto,

I have received the parts. One is back together and reinstalled. It is pretty simple and relatively inexpensive.

Thanks for you help.
Doug

 

[5030]

You are 100% right. Most spindles in all kinds of equipment use sealed bearings. Pumping the void around them is a waste of time and money.

Sealed bearings are not supposed to have to be greased, but the reality is, they do !

What I did years ago was, I took the spindles apart, removed the bearings and removed the inner grease seal (facing the inside of the spindle) on each one, upper and lower and then put them back together so when I grease the spindles, the upper and lower bearings receive lubrication and I grease until I see grease oozing out from the upper bearing. After I did that (some years back, I've not had a bearing failure since, The upper side of my deck gets a bit of grease on it but it never gets on the the belt as it's thrown off and sticks to the deck UNDER the pulley. For some reason manufacturers use sealed bearings but provide a grease fitting anyway. If the bearing is sealed, no grease can get in...lol

Kind of counter productive and they need the grease, those bearings are under quite a load constantly.