RSD......Spindle Lub?

[mowerman05]

My great dane is about 10 years old, has a grease fitting under the deck in the spindle housing on the back side. have only changed one complete spindle assembly in all the years I have owned it.

 

[reynoldston]

I don't like this,just how often to replace bearings then?

When I worked in manufacturing when we would service some machinery that run 24/7 we would replace all bearings once a year. So if it is a problem in your heart I would sat once a year then you should be safe. As for myself I wouldn't change them till they got noisy, but that's just me.

 

[bertsmobile1]

If the bearing had to be replaced on the Great Dane annually it's no wonder they went out of business and were discontinued.

Never seen or heard of one till I bought this run.
As such the very first thing I did ( as with any impliment I have not seen before ) was to download the factory service manual and parts books.
When you don't know any better , following the written instruction can't do too much damage.
Oddly enough I have found quite a few "rebuilt" machines of different breeds where the shop has made a total mess of the job with wrong sized pulleys, tension springs working backwards or not fitted at all etc, etc.
And here is the relevant page for any who might be inclined to believe this white man speek with forked tongue.
View attachment chariotsr_service.pdf

By virtue of the fact the annual service is listed after the 500 hrs service one presumes GD intended these machines to be substantially more than 500 hrs/yr

 

[bertsmobile1]

When I worked in manufacturing when we would service some machinery that run 24/7 we would replace all bearings once a year. So if it is a problem in your heart I would sat once a year then you should be safe. As for myself I wouldn't change them till they got noisy, but that's just me.

Well that really depends upon the cost & consequences of downtime.
If you only have 1 big mower & you are doing better than 500 hrs/ yr having it brake down on the job followed by a week in the shop might not be allowable.
Even if you have a spare, the cost of the downtime still could very well exceed the cost of the preventative maintenance.

 

[Ric]

Never seen or heard of one till I bought this run.
As such the very first thing I did ( as with any impliment I have not seen before ) was to download the factory service manual and parts books.
When you don't know any better , following the written instruction can't do too much damage.
Oddly enough I have found quite a few "rebuilt" machines of different breeds where the shop has made a total mess of the job with wrong sized pulleys, tension springs working backwards or not fitted at all etc, etc.
And here is the relevant page for any who might be inclined to believe this white man speek with forked tongue.
View attachment 24533

By virtue of the fact the annual service is listed after the 500 hrs service one presumes GD intended these machines to be substantially more than 500 hrs/yr

I don't doubt what you were saying about the GD. I think probably that was the reason for there downfall and being discontinued, they didn't do well. There was just to much down time and maintenance or up keep involved to make the mower profitable.

 

[mechanic mark]

Manuals locate your service manual & read about your spindles.

 

[bertsmobile1]

I don't doubt what you were saying about the GD. I think probably that was the reason for there downfall and being discontinued, they didn't do well. There was just to much down time and maintenance or up keep involved to make the mower profitable.

Don't know.

Untill i took over this run I had mainly only worked on domestics and principally walk behinds.
The nearest GD dealer to here is about 40Km away and there are a lot of them in my run so when new I would assume they were considerd good value
like I mentioned before I have one that does around 1500 hrs/ Yr, remember we have very similar weather to California so we mow all year and at present we just got 6" rain over the last 2 weeks so some grasses are growing a foot /week we have daylight saving so some contractors are doing 6am ( earliest leagal mowing time ) to 8 pm ( lattest legal mowing time ).
Two more look like about 500 hrs/yr and all the others are home owners on small acreages ( 5 to 300 )

I like them from a mechanics POV, easy to work on , nothing fancy to complicate things and all service information readily available as a free down load ( Bliss ).
OTOH i don't like driving them.
All seem to go way too fast and are really twitchy to steer. Probably just a matter of getting used to them but the Dixions, Dixies , Toros, Dear Johns, Hustlers & Coxes are far more civilised .