Bearing life

How long should the Bearing in the blade spindles last? I am at 3 years and only 168 hr. maybe under warranty ? Thanks for reading.

That depends on many factors. Sealed or open, operating conditions, maintainance, amount and type of use, quality. I’ve seen some go in two years and others last the life of the unit. The ones in my tractor deck are 16 years old. There is no reliable answer to your question.

Like said above - difficult to know.
The 3 point 84" finish mower for my tractor is 14 years old.
I've never replaced a spindle bearing.

At 25 years, I *thought* the greasable spindles in my Cub Cadet 2140 needed replacement.

I was wrong.

It depends mostly on the installation. Some last for years that were lucky when the mechanic understands bearings and their installation. Other bearings not so fortunate can have a life span of less than a couple of hours as can be seen in this pic. Yep, installed by a professional.:laughing:

Deep groove ball bearings are not a particularly a good choice for spindle bearings from an engineering point of view.
Tapered rollers are far better and they had been used on top line commercial mowers.
However they are expensive to to make & fit and require constant maintenance which rarely happens in life so the change was made .

According to the Great Dane service manual the spindle bearings should be greased every day and changed every year.
Now that is a commercial mower so a year could be anything from 500 to 2000 hours.
In practice I have found one of my customers needs his done twice a season , another every 2nd season & the 3 domestic customers have all been done so that will be around 5 years.

The customers with domestic Toros get spindle bearings done every 2nd set of blades and most of the commercials every 3rd set.
One customer who is very hard on his mowers & never sharpens his blades ends up with new bearings every set of new blades.

Keep a log.
Usually the discharge side bearings go before the others because it dose a lot more work.
Next is the blade length.
Longer blades put more load on the bearings so a 3 blade 48" deck will usually get better bearing life than a 2 blade 42" deck.

neetan said:

How long should the Bearing in the blade spindles last? I am at 3 years and only 168 hr. maybe under warranty ? Thanks for reading.

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Since this is the Hustler Forum, I'll give an answer about my Hustler. I start getting play after about 200 hours of use and noise thereafter. I have thought about putting in zerk fittings to grease these bearings and extend the life, but at $3.00/each and $18.00 (Rotary 09-50190) I just pop em out and pop em in. With the deck off, it only takes about 15 minutes for all three spindles. I keep a set on the shelf along with a spare spindle. The bearings in the front wheels lasted about 500 hours.

For sealed ball bearings, if 1 of the bearings outer race diameter is adjusted to a push fit as opposed to a press fit, ( I prefer the top bearing ) that eliminates any detrimental lateral thrust during install and any chance of pre-mature bearing disaster such as in reply #5.

SeniorCitizen said:

For sealed ball bearings, if 1 of the bearings outer race diameter is adjusted to a push fit as opposed to a press fit, ( I prefer the top bearing ) that eliminates any detrimental lateral thrust during install and any chance of pre-mature bearing disaster such as in reply #5.

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Both of the bearings are a push fit. You do have to hammer them out with a drift punch. The trick is to use a bearing/seal installer that pushes only on the outside if it won't go in with gentle pushing. I haven't had to use anything more than a gentle push with my thumb. I take it that you've never played with Hustler spindles.

The lower bearing is a tight fit on the spindle and a light push into the housing.
The top bearing is the other way round.
Thus you use a pipe to fit the lower onto the shaft and in my case, the outer race of an old bearing pulled apart to drive the top bearing into the housing.
Got shown that little trick when I was a spotty faced teenager.
Got a box full of old inners & outers ground just a little so if a bearing is deep the old race will just fall out.

The other thing I failed to mention is bearings should always be bought over the counter from a bearing shop or from a mower shop or a retail outlet that you know.

The most faked item on the planet is bearings.
I can get spindle bearings on line for $ 2.00 a piece.
The certified ones from my wholesaler are $ 7.00 to $ 25.00 a piece.
The $ 2.00 ones would be struggleing to work properly on a supermarket trolly