48 inch GT deck greasing
 

Hey all,

I have 1641 2 yrs now and everything perfect. mine has 48in GT 3 blade deck, (pictured). All 3 grease zerks on deck wont take grease and never did since i owned it. The center zerk, I unscrewed and put in gun, grease squirts threw it fine, put back in and nothing. The left and right zerks don't even have hex for wrench or socket? They are pressed in maybe? Someone told me heat them up to loosen old grease (with little propane torch), so i tried that and got maybe 2-3 pumps in each. One guy said, oh just replace the 3 spindles. That's not an option, i don't have 2 nickles to rub together right now. Some one else told me their maybe sealed from factory and don't need grease, but there's zerks. Any help would be great.

Thanks in advance and happy spring,

Loosen the nut that holds the blade on, grease it then tighten the nut. BTDT

The zerk fittings are supposed to be pressed in. No hex for a wrench. Often, when a zerk won't take grease, some heat applied will get the grease flowing. Some take more heat than others.

You don't need to replace the spindles.

But, there is always the possiblity someone put the bottom grease seal in upside down. That means the seal lips face up instead of down. If that's the case, you bearing case will hydro lock and won't get grease in there unless you blow the seal out or turn it upside down like it's supposed to be.

thanx guys, i had all blades off during the heating and pumping process, when i stuck peace of wire in the center removable zerk seemed like lot of grease in there but wouldnt take any more. the guy who told me they are sealed said if i do all these things i will blow seal out?

If the bottom seal is installed correctly (lips faced down, not up) you won't blow the seals by pumping more grease. That is the design. Pump in grease, excess blows past the inverted seal lips on the bottom side.

If he told you that, reinforces my thoughts that the seals are inverted. I could be wrong.

This is a thread from a few years ago when I had one of my decks apart.
https://www.onlycubcadets.net/forum/...ghlight=Cannon
Post #2 shows a picture of the bearings, post #11 shows all the spindle parts laid out. I remember buying a pack of the drive in fittings but don't remember if I replaced the ones in the spindles or just the bad one on the idler.
Cannon

thanx all, not to be smart but im pretty mech inclined but little more confused now. basically if you guys had this deck what you would check first? seals up or down?

If you really did get a couple of pumps of grease in (instead of pumping air), I'd check the bottom seals. Pull the blades. It's right in front of you.

thanx mike, i will remove blades again. when i had them off last week blade came off then cups i guess to keep crap out. i think it looked like back side of the bearing, dont remember seeing seal between bearing and that cup. will look again

If it was my deck considering what you have tried I would disassemble the spindles, clean the parts, inspect and replace as needed. Download one of the deck service manuals from the tech library, most of the spindles are all the same. This is how they go together.

You may want to join Cub Cadet Cyclops on facebook. I have most of the manuals for the Cyclop series in our files section.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/666265203510023/

Mower Deck greasing
 

I refurbished the spindles on my 54" (324) deck for my 1864 not too long ago...the fellow I purchased it from said that he always had a hard time greasing the spindles...so, being aware or that, I payed particular attention to the spindle shafts, zerks and the flow of grease from the flat area where the grease is expelled from the hole in the side of spindle when rebuilding.

I put the upper bearing on one of the shafts together with the upper spacer (not installed in the spindle housing) just to see how the grease flowed out. To my surprise, the grease DID NOT COME OUT!!! The upper bearing inner race completely covered the flat section with the hole...completely blocking the flow of grease!

After some thought, I decided to extend the flat section on the spindle shaft by carefully filing it, to allow the flat to extended beyond the bearing race, so that grease could be expelled from between the upper and lower bearings to grease them.

I'm not sure if this was a manufacturing oversight or not... Anyway, extending the flat section of each spindle was a simple solution to enable the grease to flow where it needed to go!

Perhaps the 48" decks have a similar problem...

thanx sam that was helpful, i will do that , dissasemble clean. one thing are them seals reusable? and im sure parts dont just fall out, any tricks? thanx again

thanx sam pict is great, will do that. any tricks pullin them apart and im assuming seals need new?

with the blades off the shaft should pull right out the top, I also had the same problem with the flats on the shaft as in another response

you guys are on this , glad i asked. will go out in mormin check it out. also i like you pull 2 pins and decks out.

I probably shouldn't post based on my shaky memory but I've had a number of these spindles apart in the last few years.

I remember the flat but I don't remember it restricting any grease from going into the zerk. I'm thinking I thought the flat was to force grease through the upper bearing and then have it travel down to the bottom bearing.

Maybe I'm wrong?

PS. The first one of these spindles I did about five years ago, someone previously had put the bottom seal in upside down but the seal lips were blown out. So when I re-assembled, I followed suit and put the new seal in wrong. I assumed there was some kind of relief in the casting that would let excess grease out. I was wrong. The spindle wouldn't take grease and I had to flip the seal.

The flat should be positioned between the 2 bearings to allow grease to flow into both of them. You can adjust how it's positioned with the nut on the pulley and the nut on the blade.

That makes sense. No need to file that flat.

took 2 outer shafts out, looks to me both top seals are in upside down, you can see the grove in rubber. with blade nut off i grease it and all grease only did top bearing and top of shaft. pulled shaft back out and bottom of shaft and bottom bearings completly dry. bottom seal looks correct, the flat side of seal is facing blade. old and new grease was acumulating under top dust cap with nothing in bottom, i will find new top seals next i guess, thanx

If I read your post right, it sounds like your seals are in wrong. The steel side of of the seal on the top seals should face up toward the pulleys. The bottom seals should face the same way.

But maybe I didn't read your post right?

yes you read right, dont no why they were put like that. i think before the grease made its way to bottom bearing it squished out the top. i got to find part num to get new ones. my luck theres probly hundreds different ones. if i fix that and nothin i ll try adjusting the shaft down, see how goes it, thanx

https://www.partstree.com/models/324...and-pulleys-2/

https://www.ebay.com/p/2256580539?ii...SABEgJBvPD_BwE

I don't vouch for any of this stuff, just giving you a couple of leads.

The book sez.....

That instruction is what threw me off that I described in post #17. It's wrong.

them instr would be great if it tells you whether spindle is sitting on my bench or in the deck. seal facing up means facing blade if sitting on my bench and facing up towards bearing if installed in deck. im thinking either way 1 should be in backwards to let grease escape when pumped.

I agree with you, just pointing out the error.

I agree with you too. My preference would be that the grease not escape upwards under the pulley where it would splatter all over the place.

im thinkin rather have grease on the deck, if after all year cant be to much to wipe up but ya dont want globs on my lawn or customers lawns, nomatter 1 glob or 20 i will step in it, either way grease is still not gettin to bottom bearings

A little instruction sheet may help...

https://drive.google.com/open?id=14g...Lx6wn71vcsj0gT

This is for your SGT front mule drive.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Wa...QVr49WkYO67GBI

thanx, they were exelant photos, mine must be correct. im thinking with shafts out packin them with grease around lower bearing then adjusting flat down alittle, i only have about 1/8in of threads on top. see how it goes

think im good now getting ready 2 put deck back in, 1 more quest is i had a 48in 3 blade on my last rider (craftsman) and put blades on all same position and noticed vibration. i moved 1 blade and all good. does my 50in gt cub deck have any kind of certain position for blades before i put deck back in (-10clock-12clock 4oclock?) thanx

I have the same 48" mower deck. I loosen the blade nut before I grease the spindles. Same on my 54" deck. I do get the grease exiting under the deck during operation as evidenced by a smear when I remove the blades. It is not like greasing the deck wheels where the grease oozes as it is pumped into the zerk.

I do not orientate the blades in any manner. When I sharpen the blades, I check and correct the blade balance on a cheap cone/point balance device.