John Deere X300, 42" deck spindle

[UpChuck]

Hello all,

I have a 2012 X300 with a 42 in mower deck. Have a few attachments and they all work great. First I've gotta say the X300 is a great machine. Haven't had trouble with it so far other that the standard maintenance of blades and battery. My only complaint is the mower deck. Starting with a whine and grinding noise. I figured it was the blade spindle. So, I changed out the left spindle which was very easy with no down time for the tractor other than getting the part.
Here's where it gets good. I'm bored and take apart the bad spindle just for fun. What I found was like, "John Deere". WTH!!!
The spindle shaft had a grease fitting and I greased it more than required by the manual. Growing up on a farm down here in Georgia. I was taught to over grease/oil everything.
Grease and oils are less expensive than a part. Oh, I regress.
What I found was the upper and lower bearings were sealed! There's no way grease can get to the bearing. Either the JD engineers or factory assembly team weren't thinking,
Everyone that has a John Deere X300 keep you eyes and ears open for this failure. It's bound to happen.

 

[StarTech]

Hello all,

I have a 2012 X300 with a 42 in mower deck. Have a few attachments and they all work great. First I've gotta say the X300 is a great machine. Haven't had trouble with it so far other that the standard maintenance of blades and battery. My only complaint is the mower deck. Starting with a whine and grinding noise. I figured it was the blade spindle. So, I changed out the left spindle which was very easy with no down time for the tractor other than getting the part.
Here's where it gets good. I'm bored and take apart the bad spindle just for fun. What I found was like, "John Deere". WTH!!!
The spindle shaft had a grease fitting and I greased it more than required by the manual. Growing up on a farm down here in Georgia. I was taught to over grease/oil everything.
Grease and oils are less expensive than a part. Oh, I regress.
What I found was the upper and lower bearings were sealed! There's no way grease can get to the bearing. Either the JD engineers or factory assembly team weren't thinking,
Everyone that has a John Deere X300 keep you eyes and ears open for this failure. It's bound to happen.

View attachment 62388

This is common problem that many OEMs are doing by using sealed bearings on their greaseable spindles. This why I and other techs are having to take apart new spindles to remove the inner seals. What these OEM are counting on that we don't this and the bearings end up failing due lack of grease and that the homeowner are lazy and want a quick fix by just replacing the whole spindle. Just more money for JD.

 

[Deleted member 97405]

It's not a failure. It's by design. The bearings are sealed. The grease fitting is only there so the factory could put grease in the cavity. Even back in the 60's, the spindle bearings were sealed, but the housings didn't have grease fittings. When you replaced the bearings, you simply packed grease in the cavity before pressing in the top bearing. This is nothing new! What some folks do is pop out the bearing seals so they take grease, but I dont recommend that. Think about it. How will the top bearing retain grease? When grease heats up, gravity will pull it down and out of the top bearing. By installing sealed bearings, the grease stays IN the bearing. The trick is to not hose your machine off right after mowing. Cold water on a hot bearing will cause condensation. Once the condensation is in the bearing, it can't escape, thus rotting out your bearings. I work at a dealership and have rebuilt thousands of spindles over the last 25 years, and the machines that were hosed off after mowing always go through bearings and idler pulleys faster because of water saturation. Use a leaf blower and air compressor to blow the clippings off after mowing. If you want to give your mower a bath, do it once it cools completely down so the condensation effect doesn't happen. Hope this helps!

 

[bertsmobile1]

Sealed bearings are not sealed as such
If you go to a catalogue you will see them listed by their proper name DUST SEALS which is what they are and all they are .
So grease packed around the seal will get sucked in when the hot bearing cools down
This is exactly what happens when you hose off a hot deck.
I have replaced bearings in mowers less than 1 month old because the owner misused the wash out ports every mow and the water got sucked into the bearing , emulsified the grease and the bearings collapsed .
BTW In most cases open bearings are harder than closed bearings .
FWIW When I replace bearings I fit a 2rs on the bottom with both seals in place and a Z or 2Z on the top
Z's are metal debris shields and not sealed anywhere near as well as the rubber seals so the grease can ooze out through the shields .\
Thus ( in theory ) when I grease the spindles I force the grease through the top bearing and you can verify this by looking
In use the grease will get hot and the air will all travel to the top and when I grease I replace the air with grease .

It is basically the same as when fitting grease seals to open bearings you fit one to seal in and the other to seal out .
On their commercials Toro manual shows both seals fitted lip out so grease can get out and nothing else can get in
I have found this not to work particularly well as when greased the bottom seal oozes a lot of grease well before the top bearing is greased.
This was verified by the fact that it was always the top bearing that failed
When fitted bottom sealed in and top sealed out the bearings usually go 3 seasons which is very good life on mowers that do near 1500 hrs a year .

A bit of care is needed when greasing sealed bearings using a grease gun via a nipple
If both inner seals are in place it is possible to force the inner seal into the bearing causing it to foul on the bearing cage if a high pressure grease gun is used .
So if you have a volume / pressure switch on your grease gun & you grease sealed bearings in a spindle with both seals in place make sure you grease in high volume mode .