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I have a Tiger Cat 2 61 in that has gone through way to many spindle assembly's. It has 450 hrs and has already gone through the factory set and now a aftermarket set. I use good red grease and still burn through them. I mow all summer and mulch lots of leaves in the winter and am tired of replacing spindles. Any advice would be appreciated.

Hi BrentW,

My guess is that you are pumping grease into a spindle housing with sealed bearings. It is a cruel engineering joke for many of the parts manufacturers to install fittings that do no good to grease.

Take one of your old spindles apart and wipe all the excess grease off and then look at the top and bottom bearings. They will likely have seals on both the inside and outside portion of the bearings. That means they are "sealed" bearings.

What many folks do (that now know this) is remove the inner seal (only) so when the spindle is greased at the fitting on the side of the housing, the grease can actually make it to the bearing rollers where it is needed.

Hope this helps you.

These are tapered roller bearings with a press in race and a seal on each end of the housing. I have pressed one apart and started to rebuild it but the assembly’s were almost as cheap as the bearing kits.

BrentW said:

These are tapered roller bearings with a press in race and a seal on each end of the housing. I have pressed one apart and started to rebuild it but the assembly’s were almost as cheap as the bearing kits.

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Bearings come in standard sizes. Buy a set of quality bearings and don't over tighten.

Hi BrentW,

Does the center spindle shaft have a spacer pipe to make sure the tapered roller bearings are not bottomed out in the races and over tightened, it should. If tapered roller bearings are too tight of a fit, the grease will not get in to lube them properly.

In my humble opinion it is worth the trouble to have all the parts laid out and then pack grease in (and rotate while packing) all taper bearings by hand before install to make sure enough grease get to the inner race of the bearing itself. That step makes a huge difference in the life of the bearings.

Pre-assembled units do not come prepacked by hand and simply pumping grease in will take hours of run time to heat up before the grease moves enough to get where it is needed most. This excess heat creates initial damage and shortens the life of the bearings and races.

Hi BrentW,

Does the center spindle shaft have a spacer pipe to make sure the tapered roller bearings are not bottomed out in the races and over tightened, it should. If tapered roller bearings are too tight of a fit, the grease will not get in to lube them properly.

In my humble opinion it is worth the trouble to have all the parts laid out and then pack grease in (and rotate while packing) all taper bearings by hand before install to make sure enough grease get to the inner race of the bearing itself. That step makes a huge difference in the life of the bearings.

Pre-assembled units do not come prepacked by hand and simply pumping grease into them will take hours of run time to heat up before the grease moves enough to get where it is needed most. This excess heat creates initial damage and shortens the life of the bearings and races.

I tried that today and will watch them close for wear. Thanks

Auto Doc's is right on about the center spacer so the tapered bearings will not have too much pre-load when all it tight. (the shaft should not turn too tight nor too loose when the pulleys and blades are installed. If too tight the preload is too much and the bearing will overheat. Look at the definition of Timken bearings pre-load to get the idea. China clone parts is not a good thing either.

BrentW said:

I use good red grease

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Do you know what the red grease is for? It is a "sticky" version of grease. Red = sticky. As in it doesn't flow. As in it doesn't move. As in once wiped away, there is no lubrication. Worst grease on the market.

What you need is the light brown/cream colored old school #2 NGLI bearing grease. Or the black moly flavor. Blue is water resistant for boats.

slomo said:

Do you know what the red grease is for? It is a "sticky" version of grease. Red = sticky. As in it doesn't flow. As in it doesn't move. As in once wiped away, there is no lubrication. Worst grease on the market.

What you need is the light brown/cream colored old school #2 NGLI bearing grease. Or the black moly flavor. Blue is water resistant for boats.

Click to expand...

Red and tacky is a #2 NGLI grease. And is recommended for high speed and wheel bearings.

I have been given mixed signals on the right grease to use. I guess I need to order the stuff that Scag recommends in the manual.

What would be the best grease to use? I am on vacation and can’t get to the manual from Scag. Seems like I couldn’t find the recommended grease when got the mower.

BrentW said:

What would be the best grease to use? I am on vacation and can’t get to the manual from Scag. Seems like I couldn’t find the recommended grease when got the mower.

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I have the Valvoline Extreme Red in a new dedicated gun just for the spindles. This is the third set of bearings in less than 500 hours service. I am gonna hand pack all the new bearings first and time will tell. None of my bearings have ever failed to the point of seizing up but they had excessive play and noise.

BrentW said:

I have the Valvoline Extreme Red in a new dedicated gun just for the spindles. This is the third set of bearings in less than 500 hours service. I am gonna hand pack all the new bearings first and time will tell. None of my bearings have ever failed to the point of seizing up but they had excessive play and noise.

Click to expand...

Hi BrentW,

I think that would be a wise move. When you open the new spindle assemblies up, you might be surprised.

Pre-assembled spindles typically come with a minimal amount of grease in the bearings, and I highly doubt they are truly packed with any concern toward longevity.

slomo said:

Do you know what the red grease is for? It is a "sticky" version of grease. Red = sticky. As in it doesn't flow. As in it doesn't move. As in once wiped away, there is no lubrication. Worst grease on the market.

What you need is the light brown/cream colored old school #2 NGLI bearing grease. Or the black moly flavor. Blue is water resistant for boats.

Click to expand...

Red and tacky is all I use and buy it by the case. If it were so bad (slomo) how do they sell so much of it? Ha ha 2x