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Any advice on buying spindel mandrels for a 917288810 that don't fail after mowing twice?
I ordered from Sears Parts Direct 2 months ago and finally had to cancel as they were never going to come in. Again.
I've been ordering from random suppliers but they all break at the 3 bolt holes that hold them to the deck. One mandrel is original to the mower. The other I've replaced 5 times! Either the housing fails or the bearings explode or both.
Any advice on a good source would be appreciated.
Thanks!

Bad model number....Apparently.

Part number for the spindle assembly for the tractor number you posted is 587819701. Problem I now see is these have a four bolt housing, where you say you have a three bolt housing. 2+2=???? Can you clear this up?

The OP indicated he has three point mount not four point. Depending the actual model of the mower there maybe a heavy duty version available.

As I said, I used the model number he posted. That’s where I got the four bolt housing. He’s going to have to give us more and better info to clear up what he has in front of him.

Rivets said:

Part number for the spindle assembly for the tractor number you posted is 587819701. Problem I now see is these have a four bolt housing, where you say you have a three bolt housing. 2+2=???? Can you clear this up?

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All apologies! I have 2 mowers and transposed model numbers

StarTech said:

Bad model number....Apparently.

Click to expand...

Sorry. I mixed model numbers!
Model #9172788810

Rivets said:

As I said, I used the model number he posted. That’s where I got the four bolt housing. He’s going to have to give us more and better info to clear up what he has in front of him.

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I have 2 mowers and mixed the model numbers because I'm dumb like that.
Model #917271811.
Sorry about that.

2xLT1000 said:

Any advice on buying spindel mandrels for a 917288810 that don't fail after mowing twice?
I ordered from Sears Parts Direct 2 months ago and finally had to cancel as they were never going to come in. Again.
I've been ordering from random suppliers but they all break at the 3 bolt holes that hold them to the deck. One mandrel is original to the mower. The other I've replaced 5 times! Either the housing fails or the bearings explode or both.
Any advice on a good source would be appreciated.
Thanks!

Click to expand...

All apologies, I had written both model numbers down and mixed them together when posting.
I have a bad habit of doing stuff like that. Sorry for the confusion and grateful for the replies.
Model #917271811.

The 917.271811 comes up with the 532130794 spindles. Rotary makes a heavy duty version of that spindle under PN 15177. Google using "Rotary 15177" and you will sources online or you could go to a local Rotary dealer and have them order them for you.

That number works better and I have three things that could contribute to you problem. Before getting more new parts I would be checking to find the cause. Check the following.
1. Wrong belt putting too much tension on the assemblies. Belt should be part number 532144959. Length should be 95.5”.
2. Housing not staying tight to the deck, due to enlarged holes, bent or sprung deck,
3. Wrong spindle assemblies ore spindle pulley. As Star said Assembly should be part number 532130794 And spindle pulley should be part number 532173436.
4. Is the tensioner arm and pulleys keeping constant pressure on the belt, not allowing it ti flop around.
Something is causing the problem and seems you are having continued problems after replacing parts you need to find the cause before throwing more parts at it.

StarTech said:

The 917.271811 comes up with the 532130794 spindles. Rotary makes a heavy duty version of that spindle under PN 15177. Google using "Rotary 15177" and you will sources online or you could go to a local Rotary dealer and have them order them for you.

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Thank you for the information even though I bungled the model number twice!
I did Google that part number and found several sources for Rotary.
I'll post back when they come in to close out this thread.
Thanks again!

Rivets said:

That number works better and I have three things that could contribute to you problem. Before getting more new parts I would be checking to find the cause. Check the following.
1. Wrong belt putting too much tension on the assemblies. Belt should be part number 532144959. Length should be 95.5”.
2. Housing not staying tight to the deck, due to enlarged holes, bent or sprung deck,
3. Wrong spindle assemblies ore spindle pulley. As Star said Assembly should be part number 532130794 And spindle pulley should be part number 532173436.
4. Is the tensioner arm and pulleys keeping constant pressure on the belt, not allowing it ti flop around.
Something is causing the problem and seems you are having continued problems after replacing parts you need to find the cause before throwing more parts at it.

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I had given up on Sears Parts and decided to wing it. I did originally have the wrong belt but finally figured that out.
Deck is in good shape.
I had a problem with the tension pulley not disengaging until a teardown and rebuild. That now works.
I think my mistake was buying the cheapest spindle housings. Some housings had slop after I put the bearings in, others I had to tap the bearings in place. Even when I purchased the entire assembly there was something just not quite right about them. I guess you get what you pay for.
I will double check the other concerns you raised when I rebuild the deck this time.
Thank you for the advice!

I have now been here for 10 years and from day one there were warnings about buying cheap parts off Ebay and then when Scamazon branched out into everything , Scamazon parts.
Apparently the warnings will need to be done 700,000,000 times ( everyone in the USA twice ) before it sinks in .
The 3 bolt spindle housings were found to suffer poorly from sudden impacts like hitting tree roots or catching the edge of garden edging so they got replace with 4 bolt housings.
Nothing inheriently wrong with the 3 bolt ones, just not capable of handleing minor user abuse

bertsmobile1 said:

I have now been here for 10 years and from day one there were warnings about buying cheap parts off Ebay and then when Scamazon branched out into everything , Scamazon parts.
Apparently the warnings will need to be done 700,000,000 times ( everyone in the USA twice ) before it sinks in .
The 3 bolt spindle housings were found to suffer poorly from sudden impacts like hitting tree roots or catching the edge of garden edging so they got replace with 4 bolt housings.
Nothing inheriently wrong with the 3 bolt ones, just not capable of handleing minor user abuse

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You are so right.
Only today, thanks to you gentlemen, am i figuring this out. I also have a 247.288810 that I have mowed with since 2005 that has the 4 bolt mandrels. I've only had to change a belt or occasionally the blades. Not one problem with the mandrels.
I did have to put a fuel shutoff on it as the solenoid failed and, even if i bought a new solenoid, I'll never trust it again.
The shutoff was much cheaper than the 5 oil changes I thought it needed to get the gas out of the crankcase. It also is down because I backed over a stump and it has speed control issues (I'm an electrical technician and I have sch
The 917 model I only found after my father passed, in the barn, with 'deck issues'. And here we are.
Thank you for the insight.

I have an LT1000 myself, purchased in 2005. I don't mow grass with it, I'm in Arizona and use it to whack 1.5 acres of weeds and tumbleweeds, so tougher on it than mowing grass.

That said: I have replaced the complete 3-bolt spindles a few times, buy them online. Typically my issue is that the 5-point star pattern wears, the bearings go bad, and a couple of times the mandrel housing has broken, but not a constant thing. I've replaced idler pulleys too, the dust gets into their bearings.

Right now I've got two new mandrels sitting in their boxes, ordered online last year as part of a deck kit, cheaper to buy that way...typically I buy from Ebay retailers, not a zillion factories making these parts !!

2xLT1000 said:

You are so right.
Only today, thanks to you gentlemen, am i figuring this out. I also have a 247.288810 that I have mowed with since 2005 that has the 4 bolt mandrels. I've only had to change a belt or occasionally the blades. Not one problem with the mandrels.
I did have to put a fuel shutoff on it as the solenoid failed and, even if i bought a new solenoid, I'll never trust it again.
The shutoff was much cheaper than the 5 oil changes I thought it needed to get the gas out of the crankcase. It also is down because I backed over a stump and it has speed control issues (I'm an electrical technician and I have sch
The 917 model I only found after my father passed, in the barn, with 'deck issues'. And here we are.
Thank you for the insight.

Click to expand...

Solenoid does not stop fuel contaminating the oil as all the brain dead idiots on You Tube expouse.
It blocks off the MAIN JET so the engine stops
It does not stop the float bowl over filling and the fuel running out of the bowl breather and into the engine
So you need to clean the carb and perhaps replace the float needle

It’s not just the YouTube idiots who believe this. Seen it posted as a solution on this forum more than once. I wish people would understand how each component works before they starting talking about it. Gets very confusing for everyone.

Both of you are right. So much mis-information out there and most of the unknowing DIYers out that what they see on YouTube as the gospel truth. It is the same with a lot other things where people are being brainwashed into believing what is mostly a bunch of lies.

And those that are repeating these untruths will agrue with a sign post with not a letter on it.

We are about to have a black fellas refferendum
Right now Australian social media is awash about how it will be rigged through manipulating the voting machines.
A couple of hard right groups are encouraging people not to vote so it will be declaired a null result
The posters apparently are unaware that voting is compulsory so we have to vote and secondly that we use pencils to put a cross against yes or no
So yes there is a big section of every population that believe the computer is always right

bertsmobile1 said:

We are about to have a black fellas refferendum
Right now Australian social media is awash about how it will be rigged through manipulating the voting machines.
A couple of hard right groups are encouraging people not to vote so it will be declaired a null result
The posters apparently are unaware that voting is compulsory so we have to vote and secondly that we use pencils to put a cross against yes or no
So yes there is a big section of every population that believe the computer is always right

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The internet is full of both bad and great “facts”. Not just with small engines. When in doubt, double or triple check your sources for accurate information. The anti-after fire solenoid on a small engine carburetor is a perfect example. All it does is block off the fuel to the main jet. People call it a fuel shut off solenoid and think it will prevent the engine from hydro locking . Wishful thinking…
Then again, most don’t know what hydro lock means either.

2xLT1000 said:

but they all break at the 3 bolt holes that hold them to the deck.

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Probably over torqued the bolts. Most are made of cheap cast aluminum.

Drop the mounting torque down using your left hand if you are right handed. Use your weak hand to tighten. And you can also open your fingers when tightening as well. Little thread locker wouldn't hurt. Easy right?

When you get your new spindle housings use new bolts
Note they are deformed 3 edge bolts to prevent undoing in use
Use an old one to cut threads in your new housings on your bench where you have good control
Then use new bolt with a little anti-size on them
The old bolts will be a tad smaller due to corrosion so the new ones will still offer a bit of resistance .
With customers that regularly break their housing ( you are not alone ) I go to the effort of covering the bare ends with liquid electrical tape to prevent corrosion.

Wrong belt…too short

2xLT1000 said:

Any advice on buying spindel mandrels for a 917288810 that don't fail after mowing twice?
I ordered from Sears Parts Direct 2 months ago and finally had to cancel as they were never going to come in. Again.
I've been ordering from random suppliers but they all break at the 3 bolt holes that hold them to the deck. One mandrel is original to the mower. The other I've replaced 5 times! Either the housing fails or the bearings explode or both.
Any advice on a good source would be appreciated.
Thanks!

Click to expand...

i have a Craftsman LT1000 i bought off a friend 16 yrs ago for 60 bucks. i replaced the spindles once, after 2 yrs... the next time, i went to NAPA auot parts...bought 4 sealed bearings... i removed the inside seals from each set of bearings, added a grease fitting to housing...now i can grease them once or twice a season. number 203 bearings. now before all of you start arguing "this wont work"...those 2 spindles have been in use 8 PLus years. same bearings.

Install New Blades. Unbalanced Blades will Very Quickly destroy the Spindle/Mandrel Bearings. It's not like an unbalanced fan blade...Mower Blades are Heavy. Bye Bye Bearings. You'll have a much smother and quieter mowing experience too. I recommend XHT Blades if you can cross to your blade number. They eat rocks and branches like candy. Get the Heavy Duty Spindles and grease them, even though the bearings are Sealed. It will help keep out Dirt. These may fit: https://www.amazon.com/Spindle-Asse...mzn1.fos.18ed3cb5-28d5-4975-8bc7-93deae8f9840

Something else is going on and causing these to fail. I have used the cheapest of cheap eBay spindles that get shipped to my door for under $10 each for the complete spindle assembly and haven't had one fail yet!
Either there's too much tension on the belt but that's pretty much impossible for an LT1000 with a manual leverage attention in it has that only happens on mowers that have a PTO clutch where they're under constant pressure and tension and then only if the spring has been replaced or move to a different mounting hole etc so it's way too much pressure.
The other thing would be out of balance blades and or hitting lots of stuff when you mow.
The third and probably most likely is when people hose off their mower deck with a water hose or pressure washer or use that deck clean out Port which should be taken off and thrown away as soon as you buy the lawn mower.

There is zero reason to get water near a lawn mower especially a rider since there are typically at least eight grease filled bearings right there on the deck without anything more than that little rubber dust cover that presses into place. No reason to get water on top of or below the deck service anywhere near these spindle and bearing assemblies..

That those are the only things I can think of on the top of my head that would cause extremely shortened life on a spindle assembly but it amazes me you're having problems because as I said I haven't had one of the cheap ones fail yet.
I didn't see in the thread if yours have any grease fittings or not but sometimes you can buy replacements online that do have a grease fitting or you can simply drill an at your own but that doesn't always work if the inner side of the bearing isn't open but you could modify yours or make sure grease is actually getting to the bearings and then grease them every month or so.

Some of you can hate on the Amazon parts all you want, but I purchased a deck kit from there several years back that included the same spindles that are being discussed here and have had no issues with them. Everything is made in China now (like it or not) and a few companies and factories produce and distribute their parts for retail in the aftermarket around the world, so odds are very good that the Amazon spindle in the plain white box is the same spindle, made in the same factory as the one you getting from your favorite trusted retailer in a new box, or it was made at a competing Chinese factory at the same quality level. Unless you work for or know someone who works in the parts procurement division of mower company and your buying dealer parts, then you cannot be sure where your parts are coming from. Keep in mind that some of the molds for the Chinese parts are made from casting an original part, so if the original part has MADE IN USA embossed into the case, guess what the Chinese knock off is going to say?

ba
The problem with both evilpay & scammazon is the identity of the vendor is hidden from the purchaser.
So this makes them the perfect place for off loading parts bought as scrap metal because they failed the quality control inspection at the factory
They are also the perfect place to sell fakes
Alibaba OTOH forces the vendor to be identified so the purchaser knows the REAL name of the person they are buying from
On top of that Alibaba & Ali Express hold onto your money till either you confirm that the item is correctly described and works or you have had it for 60 days .
So everything bought from there will be good & not a lucky dip

At least 2 time a week some thing comes through the gate with a faulty "new" part purchased through Evilpay or Scamazon
Right now I have a knock off Nikki carb that has driven me mad with a random fault
Some times it would not respond the the throttle & other times not respond to the governor so would race
Now this one had me baffled
Put one of my CHINESE carbs on and the engine ran fine so I knew it was the scamazon carb
Just worked out today what the problem is
The hole for the throttle butterfly shaft is .025" too deep so the butterfly can catch on the carb venturi , some times sticking open &* other times failing to open fast enough .
His carb & my carb were identical except mine came through my wholesaler with a 12 month warranty so had passed quality control & his came via Scamazon and was a QC reject
So the customer will get a # 250 bill because he was too cheap to buy a $ 60 carb from a certified supplier .
And that is the problem
Even worse is customer will swear on a stack o bibles that their $ 45 service kit ( carb air filter fuel filter & spark plug ) are all good & I am pulling a swifty on them .

Something else is going on and causing these to fail. I have used the cheapest of cheap eBay spindles that get shipped to my door for under $10 each for the complete spindle assembly and haven't had one fail yet!
Either there's too much tension on the belt but that's pretty much impossible for an LT1000 with a manual leverage attention in it has that only happens on mowers that have a PTO clutch where they're under constant pressure and tension and then only if the spring has been replaced or move to a different mounting hole etc so it's way too much pressure.
The other thing would be out of balance blades and or hitting lots of stuff when you mow.
The third and probably most likely is when people hose off their mower deck with a water hose or pressure washer or use that deck clean out Port which should be taken off and thrown away as soon as you buy the lawn mower.

There is zero reason to get water near a lawn mower especially a rider since there are typically at least eight grease filled bearings right there on the deck without anything more than that little rubber dust cover that presses into place. No reason to get water on top of or below the deck service anywhere near these spindle and bearing assemblies..

That those are the only things I can think of on the top of my head that would cause extremely shortened life on a spindle assembly but it amazes me you're having problems because as I said I haven't had one of the cheap ones fail yet.
I didn't see in the thread if yours have any grease fittings or not but sometimes you can buy replacements online that do have a grease fitting or you can simply drill an at your own but that doesn't always work if the inner side of the bearing isn't open but you could modify yours or make sure grease is actually getting to the bearings and then grease them

bertsmobile1 said:

ba
The problem with both evilpay & scammazon is the identity of the vendor is hidden from the purchaser.
So this makes them the perfect place for off loading parts bought as scrap metal because they failed the quality control inspection at the factory
They are also the perfect place to sell fakes
Alibaba OTOH forces the vendor to be identified so the purchaser knows the REAL name of the person they are buying from
On top of that Alibaba & Ali Express hold onto your money till either you confirm that the item is correctly described and works or you have had it for 60 days .
So everything bought from there will be good & not a lucky dip

At least 2 time a week some thing comes through the gate with a faulty "new" part purchased through Evilpay or Scamazon
Right now I have a knock off Nikki carb that has driven me mad with a random fault
Some times it would not respond the the throttle & other times not respond to the governor so would race
Now this one had me baffled
Put one of my CHINESE carbs on and the engine ran fine so I knew it was the scamazon carb
Just worked out today what the problem is
The hole for the throttle butterfly shaft is .025" too deep so the butterfly can catch on the carb venturi , some times sticking open &* other times failing to open fast enough .
His carb & my carb were identical except mine came through my wholesaler with a 12 month warranty so had passed quality control & his came via Scamazon and was a QC reject
So the customer will get a # 250 bill because he was too cheap to buy a $ 60 carb from a certified supplier .
And that is the problem
Even worse is customer will swear on a stack o bibles that their $ 45 service kit ( carb air filter fuel filter & spark plug ) are all good & I am pulling a swifty on them .

Click to expand...

I agree that there are some problems with eBay and Amazon but I prefer eBay more than anything else because they don't hide the identity like you mentioned..
You get to scroll down through all the listings and pick the location and even the vendor you want to deal with and you can read all the reviews and feedback and even sort them so you only looking at the bad ones etc.

I have also found that you will end up getting much better price on eBay for most lawn mower parts 95% of the time..
There are a few things that will surprise you. For the past year or so you can get a two pack of the engine zone control cables and a much better price per unit on Amazon that you can on eBay HOWEVER most of them won't fit the application there for anyways. LOL
I received four cables in the mail last week all on the same day. They were all from Amazon one was a factory original Cub cadet and it fit perfectly like it should have. The other three were two different brands of newer aftermarkets and one was 12 in too long and one was 6 in too short.

bertsmobile1 said:

Solenoid does not stop fuel contaminating the oil as all the brain dead idiots on You Tube expouse.
It blocks off the MAIN JET so the engine stops
It does not stop the float bowl over filling and the fuel running out of the bowl breather and into the engine
So you need to clean the carb and perhaps replace the float needle

Click to expand...

side benefit of "clipping" the solenoid...learn to enjoy the occasional muffler backfire! LOL!

I never said they were all junk I just mentioned that a lot were junk
And in most cases the regular home owner can not tell they are junk till it has been fitted
As for evilpay, they show your screen name not anything that can be looked up to verify who you are & where you are .
I have 5 of them I use for off loading the excess I end up with when I buy parts via Made in China where there are minimum order quantities
I do this simply to hide this activity from my wholesalers so they do not see me as competing with them even though most of what I flog off is parts that they do not regularly stock.
I worked / ran a warehouse and we rented spare pallet spaces to people who import trash from overseas
We pick & post for them and it was very common for the same item to be sold by the same vendor using a dozen different screen names at a dozen different prices .
Some even sent us different stickers to place on the goods to pretend they were different items .
You could not get away with this in a genuine retail outlet .
Then bulk of them ceased trading at the end of the financial year and we would get a stock transfer notice to a new name which of course was the same person shutting down before they had to pay their tax then starting under a different name
Now Australia is a small country with only 30,000,000 idiots out there to be scammed .
I would imagine that the USA where there is 350,000,000 cheapskates to be scammed would be rife with these sorts of rip off merchants .
Thus my preference for purchasing from sites where it is business to business so I can do a search, find the vendor, their company details & street address .

SamB said:

side benefit of "clipping" the solenoid...learn to enjoy the occasional muffler backfire! LOL!

Click to expand...

I don't think it matters much as I have seen dozens of these riding lawn mowers with a perfectly operational carb solenoid that still will pop very loudly after a shut down.