Repairs 1996 Dixon ZTR 3362 Spindle Options

[ngen33r]

Hello,

I have a 3362 that I have completely rebuilt and I mean completely. The entire frame was disassembled as well as the engine. Everything cleaned lubed and rebuilt. This was a garbage find. Everything is working well after replacing the drive chains and adjusting the Z drive. I do however have a bad spindle. At some point someone did a bearing swap and did not tighten the eccentric bearing race to the shaft and the shaft and bearings are trashed. The replacement parts to rebuild the OEM spindles are insane if they are even available and I want to do both at the same time.

Is anyone aware of a new style replacement spindle that can be used even if some modification to the deck is required. I am going to try out these ones first.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07D9Y1ZRK/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=AJJCIZ2YZUPRH&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07QS4VRTN/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=AJJCIZ2YZUPRH&psc=1

I searched for a year looking for a mulching plug and a bagger that will fit it with no luck. Any tips on locating these aside from welding in some sheet metal and retro fitting?

Thank You

 

[mechanic mark]

https://www.dixonztrparts.com/oemparts/partsearch/dixon?modelsearch=3362

https://www.dixonztrparts.com/oemparts/a/dxn/5c1c164487a8661320ea2129/grass-blower-bagger-assembly

https://www.google.com/search?ei=Dp...1......0....1..gws-wiz.......0i71.FBWVHNB7v4M

 

[bertsmobile1]

Reality check.
You have spindles that are old enough to both drink & vote.
So they have served you well.
Amortised over 23 years the cost per mow is less than a cup of bad coffee.

Modern spindles are a lot cheaper than the old ones in more ways than price.
However if you can not afford to fit original new one s try the aftermarket companies like Stens, Rotary, Oregon for an OEM replacement.
After that any spindle where the pulleys and the blades are the same distance off the deck as your old ones can be made to fit.
Just make sure you can get a pulley the same size for the top & blades the same length as your originals.
Also check the blade width & thickness, cheaper spindles take cheaper thinner blades

 

[ngen33r]

Reality check.
You have spindles that are old enough to both drink & vote.
So they have served you well.
Amortised over 23 years the cost per mow is less than a cup of bad coffee.

Modern spindles are a lot cheaper than the old ones in more ways than price.
However if you can not afford to fit original new one s try the aftermarket companies like Stens, Rotary, Oregon for an OEM replacement.
After that any spindle where the pulleys and the blades are the same distance off the deck as your old ones can be made to fit.
Just make sure you can get a pulley the same size for the top & blades the same length as your originals.
Also check the blade width & thickness, cheaper spindles take cheaper thinner blades

While I agree with this logic the parts only seem to be available from Jack's and would run $400 for 4 bearings and 2 chunks of steel and a pulley. Just seemed a little high to me for what I am getting. Maybe I just need to bite the bullet and do it if the replacements are junk. None of the after market brands seem to have a drop in replacement so it will be a lot of trial and error. I ordered 2 sets of cheapies to measure and play with. I have a few days before they arrive so I can clean and oil the deck while I wait and install the surprisingly crappy OEM mulch baffle. The mower is already a franken mower someone swapped in a 12HP briggs at some point in its life. I took care to upgrade the connecting rod to the newer style and replace the dog bone linkage and lap the valves so I should have a reliable motor for a while. I have about $350 in the mower so far so I think I did well. I'll post a pic after I wash the mud off from last falls test mow.

 

[bertsmobile1]

As a person who spends more time chasing up obsolete parts than he does wrenching,the prices look reasonable.
Remember they are commercial grade parts, not domestic ones.
Looks like even Jacks will be slim pickings as they now show the shafts as NLA ( hope you got the last ones ).
There are not many 6 bolt top mounted spindle housings, most mount underneath,
Toro Time Masters come to mind and I have a feeling I may have done a similar replacement using Great Dane Chariot housings and they went around $ 300 each ( OZ money )
Some Great Dane spindles will interchange with John Deer, the bigger ones of them are 6 bolt mounting as well.

Very few mower companies make their own spindles so it is a matter of finding out where the OEM ones came from.
IF worst comes to worst there should be companies who make bespoke after market housing.
All said & done they are just a tube with a mounting flange plus a machined lip top & bottom for the bearing to locate on.
We had a couple doing the 3 bolt Husqvarna ones in steel as the alloy housing broke a leg off with very little provocation .
The 4 bolts ones are not all that much of an improvement.

 

[ngen33r]

So here is how I made this all work:

I used a set of 539116330 spindle shafts. These use 1/2-20 bolts so I had to drill the thick pulley and blade washers.

I machined .125in off the bottom of the pulleys.

I added a 1in x .125in shim washers and installed the pulleys upside down. This compensated for the 1/2in blade offset, allowed the pulleys to clear the spindle bolt heads and still kept the pulleys aligned with the idler. 5/16 x 1 1/2in bolts were needed to mount the spindles.
https://www.mcmaster.com/3088a516

I raised the spindle with 1/2in spacers so I could use 1/2in offset mulching blades.
https://www.mcmaster.com/92415a125

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07QHZ6MFV/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Hope this helps someone down the road. Works great! All that is left is to fab up some mulching baffles.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Well done.
FWIW the landlord just bought 8 spindle housings complete for his 2000 series Cub.
These were $ 275 each down here.
He did it because Cub are no longer retailing these spindles & I checked with all my aftermarket wholesalers and none of then think the potential market is big enough to warrant them running a batch.