bertsmobile1
Lawn Royalty
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2014
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Failed how ?
seals collapsed ?
Cage fallen apart ?
seals collapsed ?
Cage fallen apart ?
Can't Pull Mower Backwards - HRR216VLA to bearing conversion
- Thread starter Briantii
- Start date
No but I'm going to try your felt fix today. Now that I went bi weekly in my lawn service I got a couple weeks to tinker around with it. Weird thing about mine is I bought it from a guy who said he only used it a few times. When I took one of the wheel assembly off the shaft looked fine
Did you remove the adjusters to check the bushing and the axle that was covered by the bushing? In most cases, that is where the issue is. For me, the bushing was completely dry. Changed with new adjusters and bushings, lubed the bushing and it works like new.
The bearings came apart, totally disintegrated. The only thing left was the race. I know why. These bearings are for RC toys and can not stand up to the weight. I ordered needle bearings that have weight specs. Since I drilled out to 3/4 in. there are plenty to choose from. The sealed bearings are very thin so the bearings are very small and had to be made out of soft metal. The needle bearings I have now are too small but they have seals on both sides. I might try wrapping it with duct tape. The bearings I ordered don't come with seals.
bertsmobile1
Lawn Royalty
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- Nov 29, 2014
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BEarings usually are a standard hardness regardless of overall size
What does differ is the number of balls and the cage material
For some strange reason this is a rare problem amongst my customers usually overcome with a quick clean followed by liberal amounts of spray lithium chassis grease
What does differ is the number of balls and the cage material
For some strange reason this is a rare problem amongst my customers usually overcome with a quick clean followed by liberal amounts of spray lithium chassis grease
So I took my needle bearing setup apart this weekend too after 2 years of zero issues. Bad news - the bearings held up fine but I discovered the drive shaft is actually very soft. The needles cold worked the metal on the shaft and mushroomed it out ever so slightly. This made disassembly difficult. Also one or two whacks with a hammer WILL also mushroom the driveshaft - I can't believe how soft this thing is. I took a dremel and removed the mushroomed out portion of the shaft, re-greased, and reassembled. My grease was truly worn out at the 2 year mark.
Seems like the best bet right now is to either replace with oillite bushings and add a dust seal or just add a dust seal to the stock setup. With that said I'm still going to be rocking the needle bearings for as long as they work.
@civic - I've not had the locking up problem. Is it possible you had damage to the shaft from the ball bearings?
Seems like the best bet right now is to either replace with oillite bushings and add a dust seal or just add a dust seal to the stock setup. With that said I'm still going to be rocking the needle bearings for as long as they work.
@civic - I've not had the locking up problem. Is it possible you had damage to the shaft from the ball bearings?
Westman
Active Member
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2nd season update: All good so far. Actually rolls backward a bit easier now than when originally installed, or so it seems (Oillite bronze bushings, extra dust seals, silicone o-ring (felt) mod, Redline CV-2 grease). Mowing season will be coming to an end here in another 30 days, mower will come in handy sucking up the gazillion leaves that will be soon falling. Peace
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Nice! I think your setup is probably the best known at the moment. Thank you for sharing it and your results!