LT 1000 mandrels that don't fail in 2 days?

slomo

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

bertsmobile1

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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.
 
Last edited:

oldntired55

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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!
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.
 

biggertv

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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
 

TobyU

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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.
 

ba63

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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?
 

bertsmobile1

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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 .
 

TobyU

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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
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 .
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.
 

SamB

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Jun 4, 2020
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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
side benefit of "clipping" the solenoid...learn to enjoy the occasional muffler backfire! LOL!
 
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