Got the mower deck working, but....
 

I've not used a triple blade deck before, but when I engage the PTO the deck roars loudly, is this normal or does it indicate a bad spindle bearing?

The spindles spin free and I have greased them, and I still get the noise.

I don't have the correct belt on it, but I plan to buy one this weekend from CC. The belt I have is a automotive type, it was working until it threw the belt, but it was really shaking the belt. But the roar is loud.

Those old 48" decks are kinda loud, in my opinion. If you have a bad bearing, it's certainly going to be noisy. When you rotate the spindles by hand individually, they should be more or less silent. If you hear a growling noise, the bearings are probably toast. Are the spindles loose? Do they wiggle from side to side?

The spindles spin free and not very much play in the bearings. I will take the belt off and spin them by hand and see what they sound like.

I went out and removed the belt and the center spindle seems to be the noisy one.

Is it possible to pump enough grease into it get it to quiet up or would it better to replace the bearing?

I would take it apart and see what's going on. It might just be dirty, but it's probably scored or something. If you're lucky, that deck has the older spindles with the tapered roller bearings that are the same as 60s/70s GM full-size front wheel bearings, which should be fairly cheap from any bearing place.

I took one of the outer spindles out and it does have the tapered roller bearings in it. I will have to pull the deck to get to the center one. The deck is a 482 U1116

Got the center spindle out and it's in bad shape. I will have to replace the bearings, also the top seal was in upside down is this normal?

Does anyone have a good source and part no. for the replacement bearings that were used on the older cars ?

The part numbers are on the bearing and race. I have some old ones at home, but can't get the numbers right now.


I rebuilt one of my spindles for my 38" deck. It had what looked like water had sat in the lower bearing and race. There was just a little chunk/flake out of the race surface. But, spinning by hand, one could feel the "bump" as the roller contacted. Before the rebuild, it made a hell of noise when running on the tractor. The deck shell acts as sort of a speaker/megaphone.

Cheers