Thanks, I'll use your method to do my other spindle now that I know my bearing size, 6204 RS. Thought I'd do it the easy way and just replace the spindles for $54 a pair. One spindle bolt was frozen and broke like you said, I thought no big deal I got new spindles. Turns out they're the wrong ones for my 11 yr old troy bilt. Can't return them so I remove the new spindle bearings and they were the same as my old ones. So I removed them and Put them in my old spindle after I spent an hr drilling out the old broke off bolt. Plus I hurt my lower back trying to remove the blade nut. Then got out the heavy duty impact wrench to finish the job. What a job that was. It would be easy if I could trust the parts to fit that I order so that was very annoying on top of everything else...lol
Great job. A video that the mechanic isn't learning as he videos. Good explanation and thorough description of how and why. I am finally impressed. Good job.
Thanks for making this video. Some mower decks, like the one on my 20 year old Snapper Lawn Tractor, have a built-in shoulder for a wrench to grab onto on the top of the shaft, apparently so you can keep the shaft from turning when installing the blades, but that shoulder makes the shaft too big on top to be knocked downward through the bearing, so, if that is what you find when doing this, just knock the shaft out from the bottom of the deck after removing the blade and all the belleville washers, spacers, and any dust cap over the bottom of the spindle. Some of the bearing have retaining or snap rings of different types that keep them in place - clean the top of the bearing off with spray brake cleaner or a rag, to find out whether or not you have any retaining rings to remove before trying to remove the shaft. Then you screw the nut onto the bottom of the shaft just enough so that you don't damage the spindle threads when you use a big hammer to knock the shaft out, just as shown in this video. If you have sealed bearings but no Zerk grease fittings on the OEM spindles, drilling a hole in the spindle housing and installing a grease fitting doesn't mean that the grease will actually get past the seals into the bearings. There some videos on YT that explain why this is the case, and what you can do about it. This is a link to one of them - ua-cam.com/video/mRdrumlPOT0/v-deo.html. One viewer of that video pointed out that if the bearings aren't completely worn out, you can use a grease injector with a thin needle to shoot a lot of grease under the seals. Generally, the edges of these seals can be lifted up enough to get the needle under it in different spots, without damaging the seals, by carefully using a pick tool, and without removing the bearings from the spindles. The improvement will be immediate and will get you about another year's use before you have to re-grease or replace them. Thanks again for the video, and I hope my comments will be of some help to those with certain Snapper, Murray, Simplicity or other lawn tractors with this type of mower deck and worn-out bearings in their spindles.
Wow, incredible video, thank you. I went down a rabbit hole researching how to clean up the deck on my old craftsman mower and ended up here, very informative and useful.
Great video! Now I know you don’t have to take the whole spindle off to get to the bearings. I’ve had very good luck with popping the covers off the bearings and soaking them. Keep moving them back-and-forth until they move freely, regrease and pop the covers back on. Worst case, you could keep them in case you couldn’t get any more bearings and use them again. Donyboy73 shows how to do this! Thank you again
Thanks for this very useful video! I am getting ready to replace bearings in one of my Simplicity arbors this winter during down time. I ordered from Briggs a couple 6204 bearings (20x47x14) arriving soon. I think i will use your procedure exactly, except there are a few other rings or spacers just under the pulley on my mower other mowers don't seem to use. Thanks again!
You can Remove the Cover seal over bearings and use a needle grease fitting to grease the Bearings if there is just a small amount of play, this will allow bearings to last much longer without replacing them....
Make sure that you remove seal on one side of new bearings and fill with grease--most of the new bearings hardly have any grease in them thus they wear out prematurely....
I have the older style of quills and I only get 40 hours out of the bearings. A few days ago my deck threw its belt. The bearings were noisy and I had to destroy a quill to get the bearings out. I get nowhere near 10 years out of the bearings. It depends on what grease the bearings contain. That never gets stated on the bearing or box.
My Troybuilt Pony bearings lasted till somehow the pulley was torn out of the deck at that point I checked the bearings and one spindle was bad. I had to beat the metal back down into the deck and weld it,.......now I'm waiting on a torsion spring. My grass is really high.
An excellent video. I've got to change the bearings on both sides of an MTD Lawnflite 908 at the weekend. Looks like I'll need to borrow my son's impact driver. 🙂 I've gone for some 6204-2RS sealed bearings, 20x47x14 (MTD 741-0919A). Like you say, why bother with greasing bearings when they're only £17.80 for all four?
FYI The owners manual for my Craftsman 42 " mower had the bearing ID # (and dimensions) right in the parts list. It was the same as what he has. Usually you can find the manual online and check it.
I have a old mtd rideing mower with two real bad bearing on the one spindel and it takes three bolts to hold the blade on .this leads to my question would it be better to upgrade to a 5 or 6 star spindle then stay with the old style 🤔
I've got an impact wrench but I have minute to take off; every single vido shows the pulley held on with a nut. Not mine, a 36" Murray. Used a pulled to remove blade adapter undrrneat, which wasn't easy. So am I supposed just to hit the spindle for underside? ( obviously putting the nut back on first to preserve threads). Anyone know? Thank you!
Video loses sound at 8:52 I would like to finish watching it so far it's very helpful until the sound cut off :(... ok I have confirmed this... it is the app you can watch the full video with sound using the browser
There is definitely an issue unfortunately with this video great did by the way. The only way I was able to watch it and its entirety was to watch it through a browser which means I cannot watch it on my Smart TV or my phone I tried many different ways to watch it and then had to fire up the laptop I watch it on there oh well I guess it was probably a problem maybe with the upload and the app won't handle it I don't know but if you want to watch it and its entirety either open up a web browser on your laptop phone tablet Etc and it should work just another way around UA-cam problems.
@@pfun41 question.. do you have a vid on doing varispeed pulley bearings the easy way.. ?? Ahhem... chick here thats learning as she goes here.. P.s.. thanks for this awesome wee vid.. off out to do this exact task in the garage!! In my books.. legendary to find this.. thankyou sir!!
Something strange with your video, it shows it’s 20 mins long on your thumbnail view but it’s only 8 minutes long when you go to play it, it only shows you removing them not installing them, and I was wondering if you installed grease zerks on the spindles and removed one side of the seal on each of the bearings so the grease can get to them?
I think mobile users have issues with this video for some reason. Greasable bearings only last if regularly greased, and since most people don't even change their oil I only install sealed bearings. Sealed will last longer without maintenance.
Have you ever changed bearings in an old Sears mower? I have a 1973 16 HP with 42 inch deck. The tractor is know as a suburban. It has the original bearings, 45 years old. They are tapered roller bearings, LM11949. I tried to press the shaft out with a 12 ton jack but it wouldn't budge. There is knarling on the shaft just above the bearing and it has to go back thru the bearing. If you have worked on one of these, how did you get the shaft out and the outer races? Thank you...
Replacing bearings is typically the same on most mowers, press the old ones out and the new one's in. You'rs are probably seized in. I'd try wire wheeling the shaft that has to slide through the bearing, if that doesn't work add some heat and try again.
Thanks for the reply pfun41. My mower deck and spindle things are noting like the MTD. It has tapered roller bearings that set in a tapered race and they will have to be replaced too. Since the deck still works even with bad bearings I decided to put it back together. When I did I tightened the nut with an impact gun and turned the shaft and it was very tight. I had use a sledge hammer to get the shaft to spin freely. The press still wouldn't move it. The shaft is like new inside and was covered in grease and it still wouldn't move with the press. I guess when the time comes I'll just have to hammer them apart.
Over the years I found that most lawn tractor blades will spin at far faster rates of speed then most push lawn mower blade do . lawn tractor blades will spin up to around 35000 rpm. And if you wondering why spindle bearing wear out. It is directly cause by blunt out of balance blades or belts. And a deck belts life will shorten and eventfully brake mainly because they are not tracking right . I use my lawn tractor ever two weeks I check and if needed resharpen and balance my blades depending on use from every three to six .months My old lawn mowing contractor told me he would check and resharpens or replace his blades once a month
Video stops playing at 8:55, should be a total of 20:02 available though. Guess youtube has problem with this. Can you perhaps reload this?This is an excellent useful video pfun41. Thanks!
The old bearings have corrosion, rust, and years of heat cycling and natural threadlocker holding them in. New bearings have none of that so they go in easily.
For the small cost difference on my Troy Bilt, I replaced the spindles entirely with greaseable units. I'll just pump them full every year and hopefully never do this job again.
Thanks, I'll use your method to do my other spindle now that I know my bearing size, 6204 RS.
Thought I'd do it the easy way and just replace the spindles for $54 a pair. One spindle bolt was frozen and broke like you said, I thought no big deal I got new spindles. Turns out they're the wrong ones for my 11 yr old troy bilt.
Can't return them so I remove the new spindle bearings and they were the same as my old ones. So I removed them and Put them in my old spindle after I spent an hr drilling out the old broke off bolt.
Plus I hurt my lower back trying to remove the blade nut. Then got out the heavy duty impact wrench to finish the job.
What a job that was. It would be easy if I could trust the parts to fit that I order so that was very annoying on top of everything else...lol
Great job. A video that the mechanic isn't learning as he videos. Good explanation and thorough description of how and why. I am finally impressed. Good job.
Very helpful - well explained, to the point, and no annoying music
Thanks for making this video. Some mower decks, like the one on my 20 year old Snapper Lawn Tractor, have a built-in shoulder for a wrench to grab onto on the top of the shaft, apparently so you can keep the shaft from turning when installing the blades, but that shoulder makes the shaft too big on top to be knocked downward through the bearing, so, if that is what you find when doing this, just knock the shaft out from the bottom of the deck after removing the blade and all the belleville washers, spacers, and any dust cap over the bottom of the spindle. Some of the bearing have retaining or snap rings of different types that keep them in place - clean the top of the bearing off with spray brake cleaner or a rag, to find out whether or not you have any retaining rings to remove before trying to remove the shaft. Then you screw the nut onto the bottom of the shaft just enough so that you don't damage the spindle threads when you use a big hammer to knock the shaft out, just as shown in this video.
If you have sealed bearings but no Zerk grease fittings on the OEM spindles, drilling a hole in the spindle housing and installing a grease fitting doesn't mean that the grease will actually get past the seals into the bearings. There some videos on YT that explain why this is the case, and what you can do about it. This is a link to one of them - ua-cam.com/video/mRdrumlPOT0/v-deo.html. One viewer of that video pointed out that if the bearings aren't completely worn out, you can use a grease injector with a thin needle to shoot a lot of grease under the seals. Generally, the edges of these seals can be lifted up enough to get the needle under it in different spots, without damaging the seals, by carefully using a pick tool, and without removing the bearings from the spindles. The improvement will be immediate and will get you about another year's use before you have to re-grease or replace them.
Thanks again for the video, and I hope my comments will be of some help to those with certain Snapper, Murray, Simplicity or other lawn tractors with this type of mower deck and worn-out bearings in their spindles.
This is a great video. Is there an academy award for UA-cam videos?
Wow, incredible video, thank you. I went down a rabbit hole researching how to clean up the deck on my old craftsman mower and ended up here, very informative and useful.
i guess I am pretty off topic but do anyone know a good website to watch new tv shows online?
@Maximiliano Rey I use flixzone. You can find it on google =)
Great video! Now I know you don’t have to take the whole spindle off to get to the bearings. I’ve had very good luck with popping the covers off the bearings and soaking them. Keep moving them back-and-forth until they move freely, regrease and pop the covers back on. Worst case, you could keep them in case you couldn’t get any more bearings and use them again. Donyboy73 shows how to do this! Thank you again
Excellent instructional video, one of the BEST I have ever seen! THANK YOU!!
Excellent video. Great explanation makes it easy to understand . Obvious you do this a lot. Off to the garage now Thamks
Thank you,I have just made replacement idler pulleys with bigger replaceable bearings and now the spindles are next,
Thanks for this very useful video! I am getting ready to replace bearings in one of my Simplicity arbors this winter during down time. I ordered from Briggs a couple 6204 bearings (20x47x14) arriving soon. I think i will use your procedure exactly, except there are a few other rings or spacers just under the pulley on my mower other mowers don't seem to use. Thanks again!
You can Remove the Cover seal over bearings and use a needle grease fitting to grease the Bearings if there is just a small amount of play, this will allow bearings to last much longer without replacing them....
Make sure that you remove seal on one side of new bearings and fill with grease--most of the new bearings hardly have any grease in them thus they wear out prematurely....
Excellent vid. Nice job and thanks.
I have the older style of quills and I only get 40 hours out of the bearings. A few days ago my deck threw its belt. The bearings were noisy and I had to destroy a quill to get the bearings out. I get nowhere near 10 years out of the bearings. It depends on what grease the bearings contain. That never gets stated on the bearing or box.
Take pulley off and tap out bottom with blade attached
Drill and tap for zert
Replace brg 6204-RS
Remove inside cover and install
Very informative video. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks, you just saved me some money!
Make sure you use antiz on bolts, nuts and remove inter brg cover plus drill and install zert
My Troybuilt Pony bearings lasted till somehow the pulley was torn out of the deck at that point I checked the bearings and one spindle was bad.
I had to beat the metal back down into the deck and weld it,.......now I'm waiting on a torsion spring.
My grass is really high.
I needed this. Good pfun informative vid.
A really good how to, my second hand mower will benefit greatly, thanks!
what size are the nuts on top the spindle and the one holding the blade on?thx
Around 18:17 I see when you tapped in the spindle the left side bearing moved a little up out of its seat.. I guess the impact pushed it back down
Nice video ..Thanks for the link
An excellent video. I've got to change the bearings on both sides of an MTD Lawnflite 908 at the weekend. Looks like I'll need to borrow my son's impact driver. 🙂 I've gone for some 6204-2RS sealed bearings, 20x47x14 (MTD 741-0919A). Like you say, why bother with greasing bearings when they're only £17.80 for all four?
So vid cutoff where get the bearings or regrease
Definitely an impact job either harbor freight pneumatic or one of their battery/corded electric either way
I'd reccomend sealed bearings.
How does the top bearing get grease?
Good stuff brother
I need to see how it goes back together. Damnit.
FYI The owners manual for my Craftsman 42 " mower had the bearing ID # (and dimensions) right in the parts list. It was the same as what he has. Usually you can find the manual online and check it.
I have a old mtd rideing mower with two real bad bearing on the one spindel and it takes three bolts to hold the blade on .this leads to my question would it be better to upgrade to a 5 or 6 star spindle then stay with the old style 🤔
The 3 bolt mandrels hold up just fine on craftsmans. If it works I wouldn't go through a ton of trouble trying to change it.
Well done good video !
This looks a lot like my huskee LT 3800 I believe my bearings are shot also there’s a terrible vibration and the belt keeps jumping off
Huskee is made by MTD, That's pretty much the same mower but with a different hood and color.
I've got an impact wrench but I have minute to take off; every single vido shows the pulley held on with a nut. Not mine, a 36" Murray. Used a pulled to remove blade adapter undrrneat, which wasn't easy. So am I supposed just to hit the spindle for underside? ( obviously putting the nut back on first to preserve threads). Anyone know? Thank you!
Great video. What is that tool you used to hammer out the bearings? I need one of those.
Its a spindle out of an old Murray lawn mower.
Video loses sound at 8:52 I would like to finish watching it so far it's very helpful until the sound cut off :(... ok I have confirmed this... it is the app you can watch the full video with sound using the browser
Everything is fine on my end. Might be your computer or connection.
iqbrain same for me.
Nicholas Austin, no sound for me on my phone, using app.
Must be an issue with youtube then.
There is definitely an issue unfortunately with this video great did by the way. The only way I was able to watch it and its entirety was to watch it through a browser which means I cannot watch it on my Smart TV or my phone I tried many different ways to watch it and then had to fire up the laptop I watch it on there oh well I guess it was probably a problem maybe with the upload and the app won't handle it I don't know but if you want to watch it and its entirety either open up a web browser on your laptop phone tablet Etc and it should work just another way around UA-cam problems.
thank you you were very clear
thank you great job
My 05 yard machine needs the bearings replaced on the variable speed pulley how can I find the correct ones?
Pull them out and look for the number on the seals.
@@pfun41 question.. do you have a vid on doing varispeed pulley bearings the easy way.. ??
Ahhem... chick here thats learning as she goes here..
P.s.. thanks for this awesome wee vid.. off out to do this exact task in the garage!! In my books.. legendary to find this.. thankyou sir!!
@@bronwynrussell7763 I've never had to replace the bearings on a vari drive pulley.
just took mine apart, had 1 bearing and a bunch of dust 😂
Something strange with your video, it shows it’s 20 mins long on your thumbnail view but it’s only 8 minutes long when you go to play it, it only shows you removing them not installing them, and I was wondering if you installed grease zerks on the spindles and removed one side of the seal on each of the bearings so the grease can get to them?
I think mobile users have issues with this video for some reason. Greasable bearings only last if regularly greased, and since most people don't even change their oil I only install sealed bearings. Sealed will last longer without maintenance.
I can only imagine the merciless beating those bearings take and that is sometimes all day long. Using a good grease *might* make them last longer.
Have you ever changed bearings in an old Sears mower? I have a 1973 16 HP with 42 inch deck. The tractor is know as a suburban. It has the original bearings, 45 years old. They are tapered roller bearings, LM11949. I tried to press the shaft out with a 12 ton jack but it wouldn't budge. There is knarling on the shaft just above the bearing and it has to go back thru the bearing. If you have worked on one of these, how did you get the shaft out and the outer races? Thank you...
Replacing bearings is typically the same on most mowers, press the old ones out and the new one's in. You'rs are probably seized in. I'd try wire wheeling the shaft that has to slide through the bearing, if that doesn't work add some heat and try again.
Thanks for the reply pfun41. My mower deck and spindle things are noting like the MTD. It has tapered roller bearings that set in a tapered race and they will have to be replaced too. Since the deck still works even with bad bearings I decided to put it back together. When I did I tightened the nut with an impact gun and turned the shaft and it was very tight. I had use a sledge hammer to get the shaft to spin freely. The press still wouldn't move it. The shaft is like new inside and was covered in grease and it still wouldn't move with the press. I guess when the time comes I'll just have to hammer them apart.
Over the years I found that most lawn tractor blades will spin at far faster rates of speed then most push lawn mower blade do . lawn tractor blades will spin up to around 35000 rpm. And if you wondering why spindle bearing wear out. It is directly cause by blunt out of balance blades or belts. And a deck belts life will shorten and eventfully brake mainly because they are not tracking right . I use my lawn tractor ever two weeks I check and if needed resharpen and balance my blades depending on use from every three to six .months My old lawn mowing contractor told me he would check and resharpens or replace his blades once a month
I have the same exact 38" mower, did it take the 203 RS or 204 RS bearings?
6204-2rs
204
Is there a part 2 to this video somewhere?
No, Why?
Video stops playing at 8:55, should be a total of 20:02 available though. Guess youtube has problem with this. Can you perhaps reload this?This is an excellent useful video pfun41. Thanks!
can i do this job without impact driver?
you can it's just harder and takes longer.
When you replaced the bearings in this video you said there are two bearings for each spindle. Are the two bearings the same size diameter?
on these mowers yes. Should be 6204-2rs top and bottom.
pfun41 where do you get these bearings at and how much do they cost
Is there a video that shows how to install the new bearings in the spindle? Do you grease them or are they greased already?
yea, this video.
How did you put the bearings back in? If they were so difficult to get out
The old bearings have corrosion, rust, and years of heat cycling and natural threadlocker holding them in. New bearings have none of that so they go in easily.
pfun41 Thanks for the info. I was worried I would mess something up if they needed to be machine press or something of that nature
For the small cost difference on my Troy Bilt, I replaced the spindles entirely with greaseable units. I'll just pump them full every year and hopefully never do this job again.
They need to be lubricated more than that, which is the drawback of greased spindles. When they aren't they fail faster.
Thank You very much Great video. jim s
excellent !
I have a bolens 38'' deck. blades won't turn and belt smokes when activating the pto.not to sure how to fix.
Spindle bearings probably seized
11 minutes of the end of the MTD spindle bearing replacement bearing appears to have been replaced with. the Dog spindle bearing replacemet video.
Hi , i was wondering where you order your bearings from ? Thanks . Also what size socket was that you used to seat the bearings with ? Thanks again .
Ebay
very good video,,, ty
How did you fix the transmission
ua-cam.com/video/2P9FvrCQXs8/v-deo.html
Spindle bearing replacement on commercial toro zero turn
I loosend the nuts and hit the nut with a hasmmer and destroyed the threads,....like it was a lead bolt.
The I had to buy a new spindle.
Oh my gosh, video seized @ 20:02 :(😢