36” RD bearings

[andrewLL 19]

Hi, hoping someone can help. I’m just giving my deck some overdue attention and have stripped it all before some welding. I did it about ten years ago and whilst it has not had loads of use as it’s at my holiday house in France, when it is used it has waist high brambles, bracken and grass to cope with. So a certain amount of abuse! I have noticed that the centre spindle bearing (103119) is a bit sticky, the other two are ok. They were all replaced with new 10 years ago. 
 

Having removed this bearing from the housing I notice that the lower plastic seal is nearly all gone.  My question is, if I push some grease into the bearing that is now turning reasonably smoothly, will it stay there? Looking at some LM2 lithium grease the spec says service temp max 120C and drop point 180C  Is the drop point when it melts and runs out?  How hot do the bearings get?

I was thinking I could repack the bearing and then use some silicone to seal it in, if the shaft was greasy the silicone would not stick to it allowing it to turn as it should.  What do you think? Otherwise I will need to get a new bearing sent from the US.  Possibly not a lot to loose by trying.

 

thanks, Andrew

[gwest_ca-(File Mod) 11,444]

Surprisingly there is very little grease in a sealed bearing. Too much and the balls, needles or rollers have to plow their way through the grease and that friction is what causes bearings to run hot.

[oliver2-44 10,683]

9 hours ago, andrewLL said:

Otherwise I will need to get a new bearing sent from the US.  Possibly not a lot to loose by trying.

 

Have you taken the bearing to a local industrial bearing supply business.

All bearing are sold by metric dimensions, so there's a good chance they can measure and match one up over there.

 

Also, the original deck bearings were not sealed.

The spindles had grease fittings and you pumped a lot of grease to fill the cavity between the top and bottom bearing.