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When to rebuild mower deck arbors


Rick3410

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What is the best way to check the arbors on my mower deck? I have removed the deck and they all turn freely. The center arbor has a little play moving it side to side and the other two have no side to side wiggle.

Will the center arbor hold up for a season without rebuilding?

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quote:Originally posted by Rick3410

What is the best way to check the arbors on my mower deck? I have removed the deck and they all turn freely. The center arbor has a little play moving it side to side and the other two have no side to side wiggle. Will the center arbor hold up for a season without rebuilding?


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id="quote">Depends on how much you use it.Side play means your bearing is going. Without replacing it, if it gets too bad, you will have excessive belt wear, you may even ruin a shaft, pulley or the housing.And it can even effect the look of your cut, as well as "robbing" power eventually.
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I bought my tractor w a blown center spindle. The shaft broke loose, due to bearings loose - housings were wallered out. Double pulley was ok. But I believe bearings went, and then the rest followed during the spinning explosion process - no matter, it's all history.

-One side spindle was slightly loose (barely).

-The other side was tight.

No damage to deck other.

Your deck needs new bearings on the loose spindle - if you delay, it might be fine for a while - but the 'big bang theory' rules. sm01

If you are keeping it - fix it. Soon is better than mid-summer. Soon is also cheaper because it will take other parts with it, when it goes down.

edit = if it's barely loose, you could fill it with grease, which is recommended anyway. (assumes grease zerx). Load it till it gushes out somewhere. (expect 50-75 shots w manual grease gun). Then check it regularly.

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When they get noisy I grease them, and if within a hour or so they are noisy again it is time to rebuild. They are so worn they will not holding grease. If you rebuild before there completely trash it makes for a essayer job, Some times. LOL

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I've run a noisey arbor for three seasons, just grease it up every few weeks, it will need to be rebuilt sooner or later. Don't want to let them fail though it can really tear the good parts up and possibly hurt someone.....dhardin is right, the sooner you rebuild them the better...

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I'm not sure how you get grease into a sealed bearingsm00sm00sm00. The grease fittings on the spindle are there to fill the cavity with grease, and keep water out. So,,,, if you are getting grease into the bearings, the bearings are bad to begin with.

My problems with my deck spindles lie in the bear hug nut on top of the assembly. I don't replace them when I rebuild my spindles and the key in the pulley washes out and destroys the pulley.sm02sm02

Is there a torque spec on that nut?

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The best way to check the arbors in my opinion; remove the deck from the tractor. Remove cover plates. Remove the belt. Place deck on saw horses so the blades will spin freely. Spin each blade and check for noise. I also would check for side play. If they are noisy and or have side play, then I would rebuild. The top nut has to be re-torqued to specs...otherwise it will works its way loose...Don't ask me how I know about nut torqueCXX(. jh

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On the older non splined center arbors, the top nut is supposed to be a one shot. If removed use a new one.

I don't replace the nut but I have found if you don't, you need to use locktite on the nut. If not it will loosen up. I use blue so I can remove if I need to. No problems since using the locktite.

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Well tahts a good point, I guess I assumed all set ups like this had no seal on the inside just on the outside so the grease gets in them. The on I rebuilt had no seals on teh inside...

quote:Originally posted by timflury

I'm not sure how you get grease into a sealed bearingsm00sm00sm00. The grease fittings on the spindle are there to fill the cavity with grease, and keep water out. So,,,, if you are getting grease into the bearings, the bearings are bad to begin with.My problems with my deck spindles lie in the bear hug nut on top of the assembly. I don't replace them when I rebuild my spindles and the key in the pulley washes out and destroys the pulley.sm02sm02 Is there a torque spec on that nut?


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I second the locktite blue on top nut. Every year I thought my bearings were going out and it was just a loose nut. I had a hard time finding a replacement at the hardware store, but the locktite blue did the job. 3 seasons since locktite and no problems with the nut.

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The nut is Simplicity PN# 1922133SM and is available at any Simplicity dealer.

Now is the best time to rebuild since you won`t be using the deck for 2 or 3 months. The link below is a cheap price for the bearings and they are an excellent quality bearing. I have several decks with them installed.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Qty-6-Z9504RST-Lawn-Mower-Ball-Bearings-75x1-7805-Z9504B-/370624946628?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item564af7e1c4

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i paid that much for 2 bearings at the dealer. i agree with ray do the maintenance in the down season you can take your time and if anything goes wrong you have time to fix it right.

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  • 1 month later...

I've decided to follow your advice and rebuild the arbors. I've purchased new bearings and have removed the arbors from the mower deck. My next challenge is to take these arbors apart. I read a tutorial on rebuilding these and they indicate a "love tap" may be needed to get them to come apart. I've loosened the large hex nuts at the end of the shafts but cannot get anything to slide free.

Does anyone have any tips on how to free these up? I don't see any signs of mechanical fasteners holding it together. Looks like the rod should slip through the casting but I don't want to break anything.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

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Not sure what tractor you have and if it is the old style arbors, do as stated below. Large hex nut to me indicates old style arbors. If it is the two piece arbor assemblies, they just split apart. If old style arbors. I would consider replacing the top nut.

If you got the nut off, remove the pulley. Don`t drive the shaft through the pulley. There is a key on the inside of the pulley and a set screw that tightens up against the woodruff key. If you drive the shaft out it will drive the key into the washer under the pulley an ruin it. The key is softer than the bearing and it won`t go through the bearing. So use a puller or bearing seperator to pull the pulley off the shaft.

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I have a question related to this as I am also in the process or rebuilding my Landlord 50" deck. Is it normal for the splines on the spindles to be all chewed up? Lots of wear on these, its actually dished in the middle of the splined area. I'm leaning towards buying new, But in the interests of becoming more knowledgeable, I would like to know if this affects anything. The blade adaptors came off fairly easily. If I should have started a new thread with this question, please excuse my ignorance, let me know, and I will do so.

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Another thing to watch for when inspecting the arbors when you have play is shaft wear. My dad's deck and mine both had worn the shaft where the center arbor rides on it's cartridge bearings. In his case it was not savable, mine it was. Just another reason for checking the whole assembly for play. From what I can tell it is a product of bearing resistance higher than the friction fit of the shaft. Not sure from old grease or what, but when I took the cartridges out the bearings themselves had no play at all but a good bit of chunky grease resistance in spite of monthly grease gun maintenance for years.

In my machinery repair job I've found a product called "loctite bearing setting compound" which is like like red loctite but it expands to fill any cavities between the shafts and cartridges and adhere them together. If the fit is close or new conventional loctite would work alright. Be sure to grease the bearings prior to install as many manufacturers ship with minimal grease.

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^ true that. On previous installs I've deleted the inside edge seal in favor of the grease fitting resupply, but this time around I chose to go with a good greasing and reseal it. Seems to work long enough from the factory, with enough grease that is...

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I was told by my dealer on my 6216 that my bearings are selaed and gresing them has no affect. Two of arbors have no grease nipple only the new on I replaced on a side arbor. I greased this one, but do believ my dealer is right. He has got to be over 80 years young and been a dealer his whole life.

Moleman

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Not to poach this post... good info.. but would you recommend rebuilding when they get noisy?

My center arbor on a 42" deck is pretty noisy and sure would like to NOT be rushed getting it together.

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