Cubt Cadet 2140 42" Mower Spindle

cpurvis

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These spindles use a pair of tapered roller bearings, lubed through a drilled passage in the shaft, sealed by a pair of lip seals.

What's puzzling me is that the upper lip seal, closest to the pulley, is installed with the open end of theh seal facing upwards, i.e., away from the bearing.

Both spindles are the same.

I have not been able to find anything showing the orientation of the seals. It's hard to argue with success as it came from the factory this way in 1994 and the bearings still feel smooth.
 

bertsmobile1

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The bearing is fitted that way to stop shite and in particularly water getting in not to stop the grease getting out.
When you grease them, the grease comes out of the top seal taking any water or other rubbish with it.
 

cpurvis

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The bearing is fitted that way to stop shite and in particularly water getting in not to stop the grease getting out.
When you grease them, the grease comes out of the top seal taking any water or other rubbish with it.

Thanks Bert.
 

ILENGINE

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Also if both seals were installed with the open side facing the bearing when you grease it could push out the seals, but the way the tip seal is installed allows the lip to be pushed away from the shaft to eliminate possible pressure buildup.
 

cpurvis

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FYI Update:

When I reassembled the old spindles with new bearings and seals, they both had what I considered to be excessive shaft endplay, .022-.023". I tried for awhile to figure out how I could have caused that but came up with nothing so I installed them. The deck made as much, if not more, noise as it ever did.

I decided it might be worthwhile to have an extra set of spindles anyway and ordered two "OEM Cub Cadet" spindles from ebay along with a pair of Stens 'plain old' blades.

The first thing I noticed about these spindles is that there are no 'upside down' seals--both face inward.

You have to move the pulleys from the old to the new spindles and when I did, I noticed that the upside down seal in one spindle had already been destroyed. The next thing I noticed was that these spindles have a similar amount of endplay.

Took it for a test mow and the deck is just as noisy as ever, AND it cuts quite a bit lower for a given height setting. I think this is the Stens blades, though. They have some offset in them but I didn't think it was that much.

To be continued....
 
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