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Mower Spindel Bearings


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well I am looking for mower bearings and there is a lot hype!!  some have extra bearing and some have special grease which brings me back to should I install a grease fitting or not.  TIMKEN is suppose to be the best bearing and FARNIR makes the 108202 as P204RR6 and it comes down to price! I really don't want to spend $10.00 and up for a bearing but also don't want to replace bearings every two years. I have 5 decks and it seems like one spindle per deck is always bad.  any new options for us?

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I just replaced deck bearings on an old 101.  There is an old Al Eden post regarding greasing these cups that have sealed bearings in them.  I little grease will displace moisture.  As far as bearing longevity goes, My opinion is sharpen & BALANCE your blades at least once per year using a quality balancer like a Magna-Matic.  Not the plastic tree or the old nail trick.  That will make even the cheapest bearings last the longest. 

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I bought some of the "extra bearing" ones with rubber seals and they didn't fit quite the same as the original bearings (Simplicity used Hoover and Fafnir). This was on a 300/400 Series deck. I should have bought steel shielded bearings. If I recall, it caused some sort of height or clearance issue. 

 

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I have cut about 3 acres with my Landlord DLX for the last 7 years, and have done complete rebuilds on the spindles once, and partial rebuilds another time. It always seems to be the bottom bearings that are in the worst shape. It makes sense, they are smaller than the top bearings, are closest to moisture, grit, and so on, and a couple of the housings are a little dogged out. I use the blade on a nail method of balancing, so I wouldn't be surprised that the bottom bearings take more of a beating.  I looked on Amazon for blade balancing tools, but they are either very cheap $5.00 cone type balancers, or $100+ balancers. Not a whole lot in between.

 

Edited by bnolte
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You are correct about the price of a good balancer.  Some say not worth the price.  But when you multiply the price of 6 bearings per deck by multiple decks, $100 isn't that much.  Especially if you pay to have your blades sharpened & balanced.  Some places around me charge $10 per blade depending on how much grass are on them.  Balancing is critical.  @BLT can vouch for that & the Magna Matic Balancers.

BTW, I've never had a Simplicity deck that had different sized bearings on the spindles.  I had no idea the DLX had different bearing sizes on the spindles.

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I have used a cone balancer for years, also.Have a buddy with the high dollar tool, so I checked for giggles last year. Seems I have been doing it right for about 50 years.

I cut about an acre of grass, and a half acre in the woods, grinding up anything that fits under the deck..sticks, dead vines that finally fell out of the trees, small trees that come up every year, underbrush, etc. The last set of bearings on the deck were SKF, when I learned that the bearings from the dealer were made in the not so great state of CHINA. I changed those yearly, made an investment at Motion Industries for good bearings. One set died last year after only 10 years of service. The drive (Center) spindle bottom bearing went south. Considering labor, aggravation and cost, the extra cost was and will be well worth the trouble and expense

Edited by MrSteele
Added bearing note
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i have never balanced a blade since i bought my dlx 20 years ago.

have never changed bearings . just tried balancing by the nail method

yesterday because the simp blades i bought were only sharpened  a few

inches.cut them down quite a bit more . will see how they work. they are

the hi lift oem blades.

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  • 1 year later...
On 4/19/2019 at 10:00 PM, ShaunE said:

You are correct about the price of a good balancer.  Some say not worth the price.  But when you multiply the price of 6 bearings per deck by multiple decks, $100 isn't that much.  Especially if you pay to have your blades sharpened & balanced.  Some places around me charge $10 per blade depending on how much grass are on them.  Balancing is critical.  @BLT can vouch for that & the Magna Matic Balancers.

BTW, I've never had a Simplicity deck that had different sized bearings on the spindles.  I had no idea the DLX had different bearing sizes on the spindles.

They are indeed smaller on the bottom. 

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I buy skf or fafnir bearings online at best price i can find. Get the ones with metal shields and pop one shield out this go to the inside. Make sure all spacers and shield are in place. Ad grease fittings and fill housing grease every spring and good to go. 

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When I got a Hustler Mower new the service rep said to grease the grease zerk in the spindle every time you sharpen the knife add about 10 pumps and I was mowing a 30 acre cemetery so I sharpened both mower every week and greased the spindle and never had to replace a bearing.

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