Mower Deck spindle bearings installation

[staninlowerAL]

I understand that this forum is mostly for older CC but I recently happened on upon a situation that intreagued me and would like to share it to see if anyone else has encountered similar problems. I recently acquired a (MTD) RZT 50 CC Zero Turn mower with blade spindle problems. When I disassembled the 3 shaft/housings I noticed right away that the bearings were double shield even though the spindles came from the factory with a zerk to lube the bearings. I removed the seals on the inside for lubrication and mentioned this to my local LM repair/parts shop owner who he said that he has seen this on equipment that obviously had not been repaired, so looks like the manufacturer must have messed up somewhere during the assembly process. The question is has anyone else encountered a similar problem like this or is it just a fluke? Thanks for any comments.

[Gary Dotson]

This might be a more common practice than you realize. Most home owners, today, wouldn't know what to do with a grease gun, even if they owned one. Not to mention that many of these mowers have the grease zerk hidden, under the deck and owners don't know they're there. It might be that the manufacturer uses sealed bearings to insure that the bearings will at least last for a little while. Just a guess, of course!

[BigBill]

There’s a guy on you tube who explained the blind hole zerk fitting.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=d3eC2OIg85o

[staninlowerAL]

Thanks, I watched the video. The recommended solution is what I have already done to my mower deck. Hard to believe that what the guy says is true but maybe he's right. I expect to get a lot more life from the spindles by opening the grease passage to the bearings.

[Eugene]

I wonder.

Couple weeks ago son replaced one of the spindle on his Cub Cadet Zero Turn mower.

Will have son bring the spindle over so I can tear it down.

[staninlowerAL]

Eugene, disassembly is very simple as the above video shows. Simple to replace the bearings for less than $10 per spindle, a replacement costs about $100. All 3 of mine on the RZT 50 had the seals on the grease side. Mower is about 13-15 years old, look like it had never been greased. Actually had some surface rust on a couple of the shafts. I recently purchased it used and have no way of knowing the past history of the unit.

[Eugene]

Took the spindle from son's commercial grade CC zero turn apart. There is no seal on either side of the bearings. There is an exterior seal that snaps over the bearings on each end of the spindle.

Good news, the spindle is easy to take apart. Should be able to obtain replacement bearings from the auto parts store.

[Eugene]

Type of bearings installed in the CC zeroturn spindles may have been an economic decision by the manufacturer. On Ebay and Amazon, the unsealed bearings are quite a bit more expensive than the sealed bearings.

[staninlowerAL]

Probably so Eugene, other CC decks use a cup and cone/lip seal assembly and are more sturdy castings. The ball bearing w/seal is definitely less expensive. At least they could have provided a means of the grease getting to the bearings if they were going to install a zerk and call out lubrication in the instructions manual. Some CC decks use ball bearings and don't have a zerk, I usually add one at the first rebuild.

[BigBill]

I use nothing but earth moving equipment grease in heavy duty applications or moly grease from tractor supply. The moly grease is used for mower spindles. It’s affordable at TSC.