z225 new spindles wont turn

[john_perry]

I bought new updated spindles form john deere dealer for my z225 zero turn. when you tighten the blades the spindle gets in a bind and wont turn freely. has month old john deere blades on it to. they have been redesigned but not sure why it binds up when you tighten blades. any help please thanks.

 

[bertsmobile1]

From the top, exactly what did you swap ?
Just the spindles ?
Spindle & housing ?
Spindle housing as a complete unit ?

Put a thin layer of grease ( bearing blue would be better ) on the top side of the blades .
Tighten them up then take them back off.
Look to see if it has transferred to the housing .
If so a spacer is required.

Only 3 reasons why a new fitting binds
1) top pulley fouling on the housing
2) spacer between bearings too small or missing ( we have all done that at least once )
3) blade fouling on the bottom of the housing.

 

[john_perry]

complete spindle housing, just bolts to the deck, and it spins freely with just the pulley on top, when I tighten the blade it binds up. but also they said it was redesigned from the old one. it has a bigger lower spindle shaft for the blade, so it come with new washer and nut. the blades are on just the same way I put them on last time on the old spindle.

 

[bertsmobile1]

What I wrote previously still applies.
So take one shaft out completely and check that the spacer is there between the bearings.
The bearings should touch the spacer so when you do it up the pulley pulls down on the inner part of the race which pushes on the spacer which pushes on the blade bearing which should be hard against the flange on the shaft, Thus tightening the blade nut clamps all of the bits together,
If one of the bearings is not fully home then the inner race loads up the balls which jamb into the outer race and binds up the bearing.

 

[mechanic mark]

How are you tightening blade bolts?

http://www.homedepot.com/catalog/pdfImages/75/758d4fda-b50a-4b24-ae0e-534de506ae8b.pdf

see page 36 & torque blade bolts to 50 ft. lbs.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Blade pulls up against an upset flange on the spindle shaft.
On the early decks they used a spacer GX21695 between the lower bearing and the spindle shaft to set the blade height in the deck
On the later decks they used a new jackshaft similar to the AYP one with no spacer under the spindle shaft and a cup to protect the end of the housing.
The new spindle and old spindle are not interchangable, you have to replace the entire jackshaft assembly which is why I asked what he did.
The blade bolt only pulls the blade home on the shaft so bolt tension should not make any difference unless it causes the blade to foul on the bottom of the jack shaft housing which I asked about in the first reply and has not yet been responded to.