Mower deck Do I need a blade spacer on my Cub Cadet 2186, 44" mower deck?

I recently replaced the spindle assembly on my old Cub Cadet 2186 after the bearing froze up. All parts were bought from my local Cub Cadet dealership using the part numbers from the original parts manual. In the deck schematic it shows a "spacer, blade", pn 3102817, installed between the blade and the deck spindle spacer. As I was reassembling the spindle assembly I noticed the other two assemblies did not have the blade spacer. When I installed the spacer the spindle bolt is only able to get a few threads into the hex flange nut - see photos. The first photo shows an assembly with no spacer, the other two show the spindle bolt with the spacer installed.


Do I need a longer spindle bolt to use the blade spacer? Or should I continue without spacers? This is a very old CC garden tractor that I bought to mow our 3/4 acres and I've just used it a few times. I appreciate any advice!

The spindles are all the same length.
There is a spacer with will go under the pulley, under the blade or under the blade bolt depending upon which deck you have.
The spacer is the same size it just has 3 different positions.
You will most likely find your deck has them under the pulley so when you put one under the blade you now have 2 spacers.

Thanks for the reply. I have the "Spacer, Deck Spindle", p/n 748-3065A, under the pulley and another above the blade (just below the spindle assembly). The Cub Cadet schematic shows this additional spacer (called a blade spacer, not a deck spindle spacer, and with a different p/n) sandwiched between the deck spindle spacer and the blade. Since my other two mower blades don't have this fat spacer, I was confused why it shows up in the schematic. I see now that the description reads, "used with spindle bolts P/N 71...) so it looks like there must have been some applications where the user would need to use a longer spindle with the blade spacer.

Not knowing anything about your mower I would measure from the ground to the tip of each blade and it should give you your answer. It doesn't look right by your picture with what looks like a self locking nut that doesn't have any threads showing through it.