Bearings instead of bushings??

[rdfischer]

My Scotts lawn tractor came with plastic bushings for the front wheel spindles. I didn't care too much for that. The spindles (axles) were worn down real bad and had a lot of play in them. I bought some JB weld with metal and build up the worn areas on the spindles but still didn't want to put plastic bushings on, so I bought some needle bearings with a 3/4" inside diameter and 1 inch outside diameter and they were 5/8 wide. I bought four of them. I made a spacer to go between the needle bearings on each wheel from the plastic bushings. I greased everything up and have been using it like that for a while. I'll be pulling the wheels to see how the bearings are doing.

I couldn't put regular bearings on it because of the small difference between the outer and inner diameter.

Has anyone else done this and had any luck? Mine is good so far and last I checked the JB weld was holding up because of using bearings instead of bushings...

 

[bertsmobile1]

There is a Toro roller bearing that drops straight in .
The invoice book is with the accountant at the moment so I can not get you the actual bearing number but it goes in the front casters on one of the ZTR's
From unreliable memory they were these 215-267 they are flanged and a direct replacement for the flanged JD front wheel bush & Husqvarna as well.

 

[tom3]

I used a similar type bearing on other stuff, seems to be much better than any type of bushing when there's some load on the shaft. Good info and chart here:
(generic bearings with KOYO "B" numbering are sometimes available pretty reasonable on ebay)

I wouldn't use them on my airplane, as if I had one, but for lawnmowers and stuff they work fine.

https://www.nationalprecision.com/needle-bearings/drawn-cup.php

 

[rdfischer]

I used a similar type bearing on other stuff, seems to be much better than any type of bushing when there's some load on the shaft. Good info and chart here:
(generic bearings with KOYO "B" numbering are sometimes available pretty reasonable on ebay)

I wouldn't use them on my airplane, as if I had one, but for lawnmowers and stuff they work fine.

https://www.nationalprecision.com/needle-bearings/drawn-cup.php

Yep, that's the exact type of needle bearings I put on my Scotts....

 

[rdfischer]

There is a Toro roller bearing that drops straight in .
The invoice book is with the accountant at the moment so I can not get you the actual bearing number but it goes in the front casters on one of the ZTR's
From unreliable memory they were these 215-267 they are flanged and a direct replacement for the flanged JD front wheel bush & Husqvarna as well.

I looked those up but I would have to get different wheels to use them. Mine is 3/4" ID and 1" OD. The Toro bearings are 3/4" ID and 1-3/8" OD. Wish they did have some like that flanged for mine.