ZD1211 Spindles and Grease

   / ZD1211 Spindles and Grease #11  
As Brown Dog said, greasing thru the zerks probably has little effect. After watching on YouTube the process of greasing spindles, most or all are 'sealed' bearings. The only thing one accomplishes when just shooting grease in the zerks is filling the void in the spindle.

The only way to ensure greasing those bearings is to take the spindle off and removing the seal on the bearing, then manually filling the bearing with grease. At best otherwise all one accomplishes is putting grease on top of one side of the bearing, not 'in' the bearing itself.

I've greased the spindles on mine before both via the zerk and also by opening the spindle up and manually greasing the bearing, then putting the seal back. That's a lot of work removing the spindle just to get some grease in the bearing, so I'm 'hoping' someone on here can verify that I'm dead wrong in the info.
You are 100% right. Most spindles in all kinds of equipment use sealed bearings. Pumping the void around them is a waste of time and money.

Sealed bearings are not supposed to have to be greased, but the reality is, they do !
 
   / ZD1211 Spindles and Grease #12  
You are 100% right. Most spindles in all kinds of equipment use sealed bearings. Pumping the void around them is a waste of time and money.

Sealed bearings are not supposed to have to be greased, but the reality is, they do !

I had to put bearings in my mower and once I realized how it was made I saw that greasing them was pointless. I put sealed bearings in and haven’t ever greased them since. If you pulled the inside seal out of the bearings and pumped the inside cavity completely full you could in theory grease the bearings but the problem with that approach is once the cavity is completely full it’s going to push the outside seal of the bearings out. Sealed bearings last a long time with zero maintenance, there’s nothing wrong with that approach. Most vehicle wheel bearings and lots of other equipment has non serviceable bearings and they last a long time.
 
   / ZD1211 Spindles and Grease #13  
Good commercial mowers have spindles etc. that can be easily lubricated.

I have bought two used ones, but both required some rebuilding due to high usage hours.



Conical roller bearings (standard trailer wheel-bearings)

View attachment 748905 View attachment 748907
Arto,

I replaced the hack job belt tensioning set up that a prior owner made work with the factor T-rod and two springs. I tensioned the assembly per the manual and tested the operation. Upon engagement of the PTO, the deck ran fine for a few seconds, then a heck of a racket ensued! The racket. turned out to be the blade tips of the left and center blades were hitting each other.

Upon close inspection of the spindles, I could detect some play in the left and right spindles. The center one had no play. I assume this play is what caused the blades tips to hit each other. I loosened the spring tension 3/4” and tried it again. The blades cleared and the deck seemed to run okay.

Apparently the spindles are rebuildable? Are the bearings all Kubota parts? The complete assemblies are pretty expensive, so that is not an attractive option to me. Can you point me in the right direction for the parts? I have experience rebuilding boat trailer hub assemblies. The deck is an RC72R-F30.

Thank you,
Doug Vazquez
Shelton, WA
 
   / ZD1211 Spindles and Grease #14  
I'm a bit `old school` and greasing to me means two things. First you pump in new grease to push out all the old grease and all the crud that has got in there. Second, you leave new grease to lube the bearings. Although the bearings are sealed, they will last much longer in a bed of fresh clean grease than a load of crud. Some equipment now come with `Sealed for life`, funny no one will tell you how long the life is and when you'll have to buy a new one.
 
   / ZD1211 Spindles and Grease #15  
As Brown Dog said, greasing thru the zerks probably has little effect. After watching on YouTube the process of greasing spindles, most or all are 'sealed' bearings. The only thing one accomplishes when just shooting grease in the zerks is filling the void in the spindle.

The only way to ensure greasing those bearings is to take the spindle off and removing the seal on the bearing, then manually filling the bearing with grease. At best otherwise all one accomplishes is putting grease on top of one side of the bearing, not 'in' the bearing itself.

I've greased the spindles on mine before both via the zerk and also by opening the spindle up and manually greasing the bearing, then putting the seal back. That's a lot of work removing the spindle just to get some grease in the bearing, so I'm 'hoping' someone on here can verify that I'm dead wrong in the info.
Grease keeps water out. Water will seep in the lower bearing if water is there. Water will cause rust. Rust will cause failure.
 
   / ZD1211 Spindles and Grease #16  
I saw a video on YouTube and the guy does an experiment and finds that the grease actually does get into the sealed bearings???
 
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   / ZD1211 Spindles and Grease #17  
Arto,

I replaced the hack job belt tensioning set up that a prior owner made work with the factor T-rod and two springs. I tensioned the assembly per the manual and tested the operation. Upon engagement of the PTO, the deck ran fine for a few seconds, then a heck of a racket ensued! The racket. turned out to be the blade tips of the left and center blades were hitting each other.

Upon close inspection of the spindles, I could detect some play in the left and right spindles. The center one had no play. I assume this play is what caused the blades tips to hit each other. I loosened the spring tension 3/4” and tried it again. The blades cleared and the deck seemed to run okay.

Apparently the spindles are rebuildable? Are the bearings all Kubota parts? The complete assemblies are pretty expensive, so that is not an attractive option to me. Can you point me in the right direction for the parts? I have experience rebuilding boat trailer hub assemblies. The deck is an RC72R-F30.

Thank you,
Doug Vazquez
Shelton, WA


The spindles in RC72R-F30 are certainly easily rebuilt, as long as it's done before housing or spindle shaft gets damaged.

It gets more complicated (costly) if ran until Fubar.
 
   / ZD1211 Spindles and Grease #18  
The spindles in RC72R-F30 are certainly easily rebuilt, as long as it's done before housing or spindle shaft gets damaged.

It gets more complicated (costly) if ran until Fubar.
Arto,

I have received the parts. One is back together and reinstalled. It is pretty simple and relatively inexpensive.

Thanks for you help.
Doug
 
   / ZD1211 Spindles and Grease #19  
You are 100% right. Most spindles in all kinds of equipment use sealed bearings. Pumping the void around them is a waste of time and money.

Sealed bearings are not supposed to have to be greased, but the reality is, they do !
What I did years ago was, I took the spindles apart, removed the bearings and removed the inner grease seal (facing the inside of the spindle) on each one, upper and lower and then put them back together so when I grease the spindles, the upper and lower bearings receive lubrication and I grease until I see grease oozing out from the upper bearing. After I did that (some years back, I've not had a bearing failure since, The upper side of my deck gets a bit of grease on it but it never gets on the the belt as it's thrown off and sticks to the deck UNDER the pulley. For some reason manufacturers use sealed bearings but provide a grease fitting anyway. If the bearing is sealed, no grease can get in...lol

Kind of counter productive and they need the grease, those bearings are under quite a load constantly.
 
 
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