Craftsman T-240 Deck Spindle Grease

GearHead36 said:

I have at least 4. I inherited my dad's workshop which is still a mess, so I may have one or two I don't know about. Does that make my collection a "grease gun arsenal"? I'll see myself out.

The "non-serviceable sealed bearings with no grease zerks" thing is, IMO, a problem. With grease zerks, you at least know that it needs to be maintained. If ignored, the owner can't claim ignorance. "Sealed" components (spindles, transmissions, etc) give the false impression that they're maintenance-free. I guess they ARE maintenance-free... right up to the day they die.

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I've got a pile of grease guns also.
When I was younger and in the hay fields with Dad my job was to grease the eq when they were taking a break, when I was not hauling hay. (and make sure the water can had ice)
Had to refill the old style grease guns from a 5 gal bucket of grease, then usually air bleed them to get a go then along came the refillable cartridge type grease guns, pistol grip type instead of the long lever. (wow nice)
Have several hose attachments and vaccinating needles for getting into idler bearings, etc.
I do not own any of the fancy expensive battery operated types.

Prices on good name brand grease guns now days can be a jaw dropper.

TiIngot said:

This is probably not new news to many here. I hit an object that broke a deck spindle on a Craftsman T-240 46” mower. After the removing the original broken OEM spindle, the guts basically fell out of it.

It had a grease fitting built into the spindle but from the factory, no grease was inside the spindle and it had sealed bearings. The new replacement also had a grease fitting built into it and I pumped and pumped grease into it and gave up trying to fully fill the cavity.

I just don’t understand the logic of putting in a grease fitting built into the spindle and not adding grease from the factory.

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The purpose of greasing the spindle without the bearings seals being removed would be to have grease in the spindle to help reduce the heat some what.

Have to wonder what the bearings are like on electric mower motor/spindles that they don't (can't) get greased and (generally) don't wear out on a regular basis. What's the secret there?

There is absolutely NO reason to pull the inward-facing seals from your bearings so they can be greased ... the average grease gun will produce between 8,000-10,000 psi of pressure, and there is not a rubber seal on the planet that will keep that grease from moving right past it an into the target area.

TiIngot said:

This is probably not new news to many here. I hit an object that broke a deck spindle on a Craftsman T-240 46” mower. After the removing the original broken OEM spindle, the guts basically fell out of it.

It had a grease fitting built into the spindle but from the factory, no grease was inside the spindle and it had sealed bearings. The new replacement also had a grease fitting built into it and I pumped and pumped grease into it and gave up trying to fully fill the cavity.

I just don’t understand the logic of putting in a grease fitting built into the spindle and not adding grease from the factory.

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That's the "Screw You Moron" grease fitting. Most spindle bearings are of the 2 RS (2 rubber seal) with a few being 1 RS. Those with metal shield will be -Z or -2Z. Eating grease gets old and hard over a couple of years. The 2RS is easy to service without removal from the spindle. A very small pick will pry out the rubber seal and from there carb or brake cleaner to remove all the old grease and replace with bearing grease ( usually red but can be any color). Before replacing grease rotate the spindle and feel for slight catching or rough feeling operation. No amount of grease will fix that bearing, replace it.

Peva said:

Have to wonder what the bearings are like on electric mower motor/spindles that they don't (can't) get greased and (generally) don't wear out on a regular basis. What's the secret there?

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Real bearings that aren't Chinee. Open up a Chinee bearing when new and see the couple of small dabs of something, usually white, but probably renderings from the pig they just killed.

TiIngot said:

This is probably not new news to many here. I hit an object that broke a deck spindle on a Craftsman T-240 46” mower. After the removing the original broken OEM spindle, the guts basically fell out of it.

It had a grease fitting built into the spindle but from the factory, no grease was inside the spindle and it had sealed bearings. The new replacement also had a grease fitting built into it and I pumped and pumped grease into it and gave up trying to fully fill the cavity.

I just don’t understand the logic of putting in a grease fitting built into the spindle and not adding grease from the factory.

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And this begs the question.....does anybody, except for mechanics, ever really listen to their equipment for odd noises, grinding, rough running. I'll bet the bearings on this thing were just grinding away for some time as evidenced by the "fall apart" comment.

Corrolary....largest hydroelectric power plant in Russia threw a 900 ton Peltier wheel up through the 15 foot thick concrete floor after years of vibrations being ignored by the operators and operating in a speed zone known to be prohibited. All this because of eccentric vortex production under the wheel that slammed it back and forth .You could pass through the prohibited speed zone to get to a known non-harmonic speed but you couldn't "park" the rotor in the prohibited zone. Killed 32 and destroyed the entire generator gallery of about 15 units.

GearHead36 said:

Same here. I grease my spindles, too. Here is the video that TSE is likely referring to. After watching this video, if you still think greasing spindles does no good, then I don't know what to say. Having said that, you DO have to fill the spindle until grease squirts out. The first time you do this, it will take a lot of grease.

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Wasted grease. Just what everybody needs to do when perhaps one hundreth of that amount is actually needed.

RevB said:

Wasted grease. Just what everybody needs to do when perhaps one hundreth of that amount is actually needed.

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You're absolutely right... if you want to remove the bearings from the spindle, remove one grease seal from each bearing, use a tiny amount grease to grease the bearings, then reassemble the bearings & spindle. Then repeat for each spindle. Or you could just pump grease into the spindle until it squirts out. I know which method I prefer.

Fuzzy1 said:

There is absolutely NO reason to pull the inward-facing seals from your bearings so they can be greased ... the average grease gun will produce between 8,000-10,000 psi of pressure, and there is not a rubber seal on the planet that will keep that grease from moving right past it an into the target area.

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The grease may indeed make its way past the rubber seals from grease being pumped into the spindle. But rest assured: The inside of the spindle is not seeing 8,000 psi that a grease gun may be capable of producing against a dead end cavity. The bearings would push out long before that, and if not, the spindle housings would explode.