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Mower Blade Tower Bushing Removal


Ryno

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Between coats of paint i thought it would be a good idea to clean out and rebuild the mower blade towers. I bought a puller to get the tower apart and the pulley off, but how do you remove the outer bushings to get inside? Mine seem to been pretty well rusted on so i have them soaking in penetrant. It looks similar to a rollerblade wheel. So my question is do you pound on the spacer in between the bushings to get the bushings out???? Sorry for the dumb question. -Ryan-
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If you are talking about the deck arbors, you should press the shaft out of the bearings. These should be ball bearing units and they are pressed onto the shaft. Once the pulleys are off and the top of the shaft is bare, then it should just press out thru the bottom. Other than the light press fit on the shaft, it is the top pulleys and the spacers underneath that hold the shaft in place and keep things aligned. Note that I said "press" the shaft out. I ruined the threads on one of my arbor shafts by trying to "drive" it out. Took them to a friend with a 20 ton press and he made it look so easy. Be sure to note the location of any spacer washers when you take the arbors apart. I left mine with the friend, and he put the new bearings in. When I re-assembled them into the deck, the blades and the pulleys didn't line up. I had to pull the arbors back apart and shuffle some spacer washers around to make everything line up again. As I said, make sure the blades line up with each other on the bottom so it will cut smooth, and make sure the pulleys line up on top, so you don't eat belts. Pulleys need to line up, both with each other, and with the tension idler.
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Right, i already have the shafts out now im left with the arbors with the bearings still in and a spacer between the bearings... -Ryan-
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Try using a rod, smaller than the shaft. Put it thru the hole in the top bearing, but sit it on an angle so that it contacts the outer part of the lower bearing. Try pecking on the rod and moving it around the outside of the bearing. You may ruin the bearing, but it should come out. Once you get one of them out, then you have room to get in there and knock the other one out.
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I've used a heavy duty toggle style wall anchor (the kind with colapsable wings) to pull the first bearing out; then drive the second one out. First move the spacer to the side to allow "rear" access to the bearing. Then pass the toggle bolt (without wing) thru a small hole in a piece of steel long enough to span the width of the arbor support plate; screw on the wing, then push the wing thru the center bearing hole and let it expand behind the bearing; use wood to build up a "pulling surface" above the arbor hole and rest the piece of steel on the wood; tighten the bolt and out comes the bearing. I was replacing the bearings, so I wasn't concerned with damaging the bearing.
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Thanks for the help guys. I got all the bearings out of the arbors today. And the bearings seem pretty good, but there was no grease in the arbors, isnt that a nice surprise, lucky nothing was seized...
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The bearings when installed from the factory are sealed. the only purpose that the grease serves is to keep moisture out, it does nothing for the bearings. Accordin to a manual I have read the sealed bearings have a service life of 500 hours.
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but wouldnt some grease slip between the bearings and spacer to reach the arbor shaft and give that some lubrication?
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Ryno, My mowers have a plug in the arbor that can be removed and replaced with a grease fitting. Then the cavity can be filled with grease. Most people will remove the grease fitting and replace the plug, since the cavity may only need filling every couple of years, just to keep the innards from rusting in place.
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