blade flew off :/

[justinpittman]

:/ blade flew off my deck yesterday.

Actually the blade was still attached to the housing. It looks like the spindle and pulley unscrewed itself from the blade housing. The bearing mount was still solid.

Pics below of what I found. The blade had impaled itself 2" into the ground. Not the result I expected from a test mow, especially with the dog liking to follow my mowing.

What could have caused this?

 

[justinpittman]

Blade housing removed from ground.

 

[mgonitzke]

Bolt on top that holds the pulley on was not torqued properly.

 

[justinpittman]

Yea, that's my guess after reading the official manual about torquing the top bolt.

There is one missing part that I've not found: the key to the keyhole. I'll get a magnet out to the yard again but not hopeful.

I'd not rebuilt the spindle assembly -- only greased and new belt -- so either previous owner didn't torque it or gets loose over time??

 

[mgonitzke]

If properly torqued it will not come loose, even over time.

Your local hardware store should have a new key. Probably not worth wasting your time trying to find. Not likely it was undamaged after that, either.

 

[justinpittman]

Will do Matt, though ... that implies I'll just reassemble the spindle assembly and keep using these as-is. These are the non-serviceable bearings in these old spindles, right?

Picture below. It's a 42" deck stamped U1113 that I assume is original to my 127.

I ask because I've now spun each blade independently by hand. The center, longer blade assembly spins free, quiet, and stable but the left one is slightly less free and I can wiggle it a tiny bit on axis. Perhaps the left top bolt needs retorquing like this right one must have. There's plenty of grease through the spindle that came apart so I'm thinking the previous owner was a grease fan, so maybe these are OK to keep using.

If I replace these assemblies, that looks to be pretty expensive (I heard $140 each from a Youtuber who bought from a CC dealer). If I replace just the spindles, the exploded diagram looks to NOT call for the ST745 part # (CC's website says "SPINDLE ASSEMBLY W/O PULLEY USED ONLY W/U1115 MOWERS ")... and the pic on Charlie's website of the spindle doesn't look the same as what I put back together -- see my picture here. So what fits if I do a replacement?

 

[mgonitzke]

That is not the ST745 bearing. The style pictured is older and uses a very common tapered roller bearing set, LM11949 (bearing), LM11910 (race). Same as some of the newer models with replaceable bearings. Also the same as one of the wheel bearings on nearly every full size GM car from 1960s through 1980s, I think. These numbers should be etched on the bearing and race, so double check them. You'll need two each (bearing and race) of these per spindle. I would just do all three spindles. The bearings and races are not expensive if you spend some time searching, and are likely available from your local auto parts store or bearing supplier. You will need 2x IH-473428-R92 seal for each spindle as well. That seal is probably a standard Chicago Rawhide seal, and a decent bearing supplier should have those, too. Cheap aftermarket seals available online that cross to that number will work fine in this application, too.

The service manual has some info about disassembly and reassembly. Obviously, inspect the spindle shafts to make sure there is no wear on them. As long as this wasn't really abused, they should be fine, and all you need are new bearings, races, and seals.

 

[justinpittman]

Ah, ty for spotting what these are. I'll get it apart, check the shaft to be true/straight, and double check the numbers. Looks like even Timkin still makes these bearings & races.

And I didn't realize mower deck details were in the Service Manual too. The cross section of the spindle on 3-6 (Section 3 Page 6) looks like what I have. Thx again!

Justin

 

[balbrecht]

I see you are in Wisconsin. I don't know of they still have them on the shelf or not but, Blains Farm and Fleet used to have the genuine Timkens in stock at a reasonable price.

 

[justinpittman]

Nice stack there.

And yup, I'm in Wisconsin but am starting to see Fleet Farm go downhill. They don't carry Timken here and do carry SKF, but searching their website for in-stock is terrible. I'll make a visit. Advanced Auto's website says they do carry these so that is a backup.

 

[kmcconaughey]

Justin, Brian posted about "Blain's Farm and Fleet", which is not the same as "Mill's Fleet Farm." Both are in Wisconsin and they both started in 1955 in the Marshfield, WI area, but they are different stores. Blain's might be slightly better for hardware and farm related stuff. Fleet Farm may have dropped the "Mill's" part. I wish I had a Blain's Farm and Fleet closer by. I have a couple of Fleet Farms not too far of a drive away.

Blain's Farm and Fleet

Fleet Farm

 

[jpaulus]

$9 FOR A SET OF TWO COMPLETE BEARING AND RACE ON AMAZON

 

[snicklas]

Justin, Brian posted about "Blain's Farm and Fleet", which is not the same as "Mill's Fleet Farm." Both are in Wisconsin and they both started in 1955 in the Marshfield, WI area, but they are different stores. Blain's might be slightly better for hardware and farm related stuff. Fleet Farm may have dropped the "Mill's" part. I wish I had a Blain's Farm and Fleet closer by. I have a couple of Fleet Farms not too far of a drive away.

Blain's Farm and Fleet

Fleet Farm

Kraig,

There are also Blain’s Farm and Fleet’s in Illinois. The closest one to us is the one in Urbana. Farm and Fleet is a great store. We don’t have any close to me in Indiana, but when we go to Mom and Dad’s we will visit the one in Urbana. In my area we have Orschlein Farm & Home, TSC and Rural King. I like Rural King also, but they aren’t quite what Farm and Fleet is....

 

[kmcconaughey]

Scott, yes, I should have mentioned that Blain's Farm and Fleet also have stores outside of Wisconsin. Fleet Farm has stores outside of Wisconsin too.

 

[mconway]

same thing happened to me two years ago....42 inch deck on my 109....i was lucky cuz the pic of the pieces in the grass is how i found everything....not staged....had a new keyway machined 180 degrees away on the spindle and so far so good....

 

[justinpittman]

Ah I didn't catch that. There's no Blaine's up here.

 

[justinpittman]

same thing happened to me two years ago....42 inch deck on my 109....i was lucky cuz the pic of the pieces in the grass is how i found everything....not staged....had a new keyway machined 180 degrees away on the spindle and so far so good....

Wow! Some damage to the keyhole there but otherwise intact. Good news is simple enough fix.

You saw something similar to what I saw.

I was riding, heard something odd (through my ear plugs), looked down to the right spindle, and saw a hole to bare grass instead of spindle nut! Shut the machine off at that.

Glad neither of us saw anything worse.

 

[bcarl]

I had a similar issue with a spindle coming loose. Rebuilt with new bearings and races. If I torqued the bolt the spindle was tight. If I eased up a bit that the spindle would turn easily the bolt would come loose. Finally broke down and got a used spindle assembly from R F Houltz and Son. Half the price of a new one and works great.

 

[mgonitzke]

I had a similar issue with a spindle coming loose. Rebuilt with new bearings and races. If I torqued the bolt the spindle was tight. If I eased up a bit that the spindle would turn easily the bolt would come loose.

That could have been easily remedied with a couple of very thin arbor shims added where the spacer goes. The new bearing assemblies must have been a little bit thinner than the original ones.

 

[justinpittman]

Well, I'm glad ya'll suggested checking all spindles for being true/straight/damage because I found some.

On another spindle, the assembly has worn down the housing so it's off-center. It's old damage that was covered up by a good 1/8-1/4" caked on grease that I had to scrap off to really see. This may explain the small bit of wiggle that I could get out of this spindle.

So I'm in the search for replacement spindle assembly.