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Anyone else fighting with bad bearing in thier deck pulleys? As I stated before, my YT4500 is only about 54 hours old. I have had to replace an Idler pulley that seized up on my under warranty.

Checking the deck today (due to throwing the belt issues) I find that ALL my pulley's are in need of replacement. They turn freely, but are either very rough or noisy. Only the bearing in the mandels appear OK at this time.

Looking at the pulleys, Sears made the bearing NON-Replaceable. Has anyone tried to cut or break the rivits that holt the pulley's together and replace then bearngs with some nice high quality ones? Is it possible? Is it worth it? Is there any aftermarket pulleys that do the job well enough to be a direct replacement?

If you have an industrial bearing supplier local to you... You can Remove the bearings and have them recommend a replacement.
If you know how to measure and spec a bearing... You can get anything at the various online bearing suppliers.
For me Yes, it is Always worth the effort to repair pieces, and to get a superior replacement part when available.... :smile:KennyV

KennyV said:

If you have an industrial bearing supplier local to you... You can Remove the bearings and have them recommend a replacement.
If you know how to measure and spec a bearing... You can get anything at the various online bearing suppliers.
For me Yes, it is Always worth the effort to repair pieces, and to get a superior replacement part when available.... :smile:KennyV

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Well, the biggest issue for me is that Craftsman uses some sort of metal rivet to hold the pulley halfs together. I have access to a machine shop to press out the shafts and bearings. (I can use some of the tools but not the bigger ones for cutting, metal work etc. as I am not certified to use them, nor do I know how.) I can see the bearing numbers on most of the bearings, and I can spec them out closely with calipers.

My other option is to spend the $100 and get the pulleys from Sears, to have them go out again in less than a year, or I found them on amazon.com for about $80 total, same garbage, but a better price. :frown:

broderp said:

... Craftsman uses some sort of metal rivet to hold the pulley halfs together. ...

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A common drill bit in a drill motor will remove a rivet, I am sure there is no exotic metals used by the pulley manufacturer, Craftsman didn't make the part... Not too much certification plus minimal machinist skills will remove rivets.

If you are finding $80 common parts, I'm a little curious, when you are looking for an idler pulley, what exactly do you 'search' for? :smile:KennyV

I do it all the time. Get most of my bearings off E-Bay. You will need a bearing number which some times is on the old bearing or take a measurement and then use a bearing chart to get the bearing number

Center punch the rivet heads before drill out. Chances are the deck or shaft assembler pressed the bearings home on the "wrong" bearing races. . Good advice above on finding replacements.

motoman said:

Center punch the rivet heads before drill out. Chances are the deck or shaft assembler pressed the bearings home on the "wrong" bearing races. . Good advice above on finding replacements.

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Try to find serviceable pulleys the kind you can grease

exotion said:

Try to find serviceable pulleys the kind you can grease

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Now that sound good, but it just seems I just never see such a thing. I find that the pulleys are made with sealed bearings. I also find that grease fitting are only good when used. I find that a lot of mower owners don't own a grease gun much less use one. I sure find a lot of grease fitting that have never seen grease till they have come into my shop. For this reason I can see why most manufactures use sealed bearings over grease able ones.

We have heard some varied stories about the spindle bearings in this forum. Here are the ones I remember (1) Sealed bearings are put in all spindles. The zerk fittings are to make picky owners feel they are maintaining, but no grease reaches the rollers thru the seals (2) Even with sealed bearings the upside seals allow pressurized grease to reach the rollers (3) Always grease zerk fittings per owners manuals . (4) No maintenance effort will prolong bearing life. They will all fail and require replacement.

I pump 3 strokes into three zerks on my Craftsman about once per month, and have been doing it since 2004. I have never seen any expelled , dirty grease. Where is it going, or is number (1) above correct and the volume of the spindle housing is gradually filling up with fresh grease? The bearings behave perfectly- no roughness, no looseness.:confused3:

Well, I see no one cared much for my blather on theories of spindle bearing lubrication. So here's another no one has yet answered.

If the replacement bearings are not the cartridge stlye as seen in front wheel drive cars they are probably tapered roller bearings which should be tensioned via a nut, right?
So has anyone seen or have instructions? On the old rear wheel drive cars you replace the FRONT inner and outer tapered roller bearings . Then you seated the bearings with a little excess torque. This was done while turning the wheel until you could feel drag. Then you loosened the nut and again sneaked up until you could fit a cotter key through the castellated nut. Finally you grabbed the wheel at 12 and 6 o' clock and rocked it back and forth very hard. The magic adjustment was when you could barely feel a slight looseness. this was taken to be the .001" specified. Too tight and burn out the bearings in short order. Too loose and wobble , imbalance etc.

So applied to the spindle and blades (and pulleys?) it would seem a similar approach. Experienced members please respond. This subject has come up several times this week. :anyone:

Most of the heavy duty applications use to be the tapered bearing type... and Yes that was the proper set up for the 'pre-load'...
I doubt there are many young mechanics today that have experienced packing Or pre-loading tapered bearings.
Most spindles today run sealed OR shielded ball bearings... Some with the ability to grease Some without. :smile:KennyV

This thread was about mower deck pulleys. In my years of repairs I just never ran across mower deck pulleys with tapered or grease able bearings. Not to say there isn't such a thing but something I have never seen. The ones I have seen you buy the pulley as a assembly with the bearing in the pulley. I have taken some of the pulleys apart and just replaced the bearing, but also some of the pulleys this can't be done because the bearing race is built into the pulley. I have also found that some pulleys are spot welded together which I have drilled out the welds and installed screws in place of the welds. Wheel bearing in a car or truck are a whole different story but I have also degreased or replaced my fair share of them also.

You are right. Sorry I guess I hi jacked the topic. Anyway thanks for the info.

What I don't understand is why is spindle housings not made of steel or cast like a hub on a ca?
To keep cost down ?
Heat?

(( racing is the only sport that you need two balls ))

Carscw said:

... why is spindle housings not made of steel or cast like a hub on a ca?
To keep cost down ?
Heat?

(( racing is the only sport that you need two balls ))

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The better commercial & industrial machines are Steel... But cheaper, easier to machine metals are very common... price definitely drives quality.
And in some applications it is really Not very important to make one part that is going to last, when the rest of the supporting pieces are going to fail in Less than 100 hours... :smile:KennyV

Kenny, what is going to fail in less than 100 hours?

motoman said:

Kenny, what is going to fail in less than 100 hours?

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KennyV said:

...
And in some applications it is really Not very important to make one part that is going to last, when the rest of the supporting pieces are going to fail in Less than 100 hours... :smile:KennyV

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Just look around, you will find a lot of low priced mowers, that 'look' like mowers. But have pieces on them that will be lucky to make it 3 or 4 years ...:smile:KennyV

KennyV said:

The better commercial & industrial machines are Steel... But cheaper, easier to machine metals are very common... price definitely drives quality.
And in some applications it is really Not very important to make one part that is going to last, when the rest of the supporting pieces are going to fail in Less than 100 hours... :smile:KennyV

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The spindle "housings" on my Gravely are cast iron, the shafts are 1" diameter steel and they have sealed bearings. I was told by several different brand dealers that the cast iron housings indicated "commercial/industrial grade" and that this is what you would find on the expensive, big farm tractors that have mowing decks. The ones on my Gravely also have a 3Year spindle-specific warranty so I figured that too was a good indication they would last. It took several dealers saying the same thing to convince me that "sealed bearings", versus ones with grease zerks, were a good long-term investment. I also got the "all spindles, even the ones with grease zerks have sealed bearings" story from all of them like was mentioned by user motoman earlier. So what is factual and what is urban legend regarding spindle durability????

How we are on spindle bearings which are a lot different then pulley bearings. I do find on the commercial mowers most spindle bearings you can grease.

reynoldston said:

How we are on spindle bearings which are a lot different then pulley bearings. I do find on the commercial mowers most spindle bearings you can grease.

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You are right we have been bouncing back to spindle bearings & spindle housing design while talking about a pulley bearings.
And I also have not seen many grease-able pulleys in the last 50 years. They are all mostly sealed bearings.
Spindles on the other hand are sealed on the cheaper (throw away housings)... the better spindles are easily rebuildable and have grease zerks with bearings that are typically open in the inside and sealed on the outside... but there are a lot of spindle designs, some better than others. :smile:KennyV

KennyV said:

You are right we have been bouncing back to spindle bearings & spindle housing design while talking about a pulley bearings.
And I also have not seen many grease-able pulleys in the last 50 years. They are all mostly sealed bearings.
Spindles on the other hand are sealed on the cheaper (throw away housings)... the better spindles are easily rebuildable and have grease zerks with bearings that are typically open in the inside and sealed on the outside... but there are a lot of spindle designs, some better than others. :smile:KennyV

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Kenny , again sorry for jacking the topic and having it keep bouncing. Since I have never disassembled my deck see if I finally understand its construction (craftsman dyt 4000)ulley is above spindle. Pulley has zerks sticking up 3 places , accessible from top. Spindles are in line with pulley centers and have sealed bearings. Greasing the pulleys works,? but grease does not travel downward, and even if it did it could not penetrate the sealed spindle bearings. Any of this accurate? Thanks motoman

motoman said:

.... grease does not travel downward, and even if it did it could not penetrate the sealed spindle bearings. ...

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You can buy any type bearing. You can get bearings with shields on one or both sides... you can get them with seals on one or both sides & you can get them Open on one or both sides.... And any combination of the above.
I use sealed on the outside open on the inside. Know how to measure a bearing and you can get what you Need rather than what someone wants to stock...
OR you can buy bearings that are sealed on both sides remove the seal on one side and have an open sealed combination.

IF your spindle shaft is center & cross drilled and has a zerk at the top it will deliver grease between the bearings...
If the spindle housing has a zerk in the side, that can also put grease in between the bearings.
if that grease space is Unvented and you are not careful, you can push the seal out on the top Or bottom bearing... :smile:KennyV

kenny thanks, great explanation