Repair-It

Symptoms: The bearings are making a racket which annoys me even with hearing protection while mowing. So I need to replace the bearings.

So for my turbo blower on the Simplicity, the parts are here:
https://www.partstree.com/models/169126 ... -mowers-0/

Takes two bearings, same P/N: 1705897SM

They are sealed type so not designed to be greased. I might want to just replace the two bearings on my turbo blower before the next mowing season. Hopefully it isn't total insanity to take apart to replace. Kinda seems like it is all pressed together though... Might be time for an air chisel and some attachments.

kevm14 wrote: ↑Mon Jan 13, 2020 2:37 pm So for my turbo blower on the Simplicity, the parts are here:
https://www.partstree.com/models/169126 ... -mowers-0/

Takes two bearings, same P/N: 1705897SM

They are sealed type so not designed to be greased. I might want to just replace the two bearings on my turbo blower before the next mowing season. Hopefully it isn't total insanity to take apart to replace. Kinda seems like it is all pressed together though...

Might be time for an air chisel and some attachments.

Ordered two bearings. $15 total from eBay for OEM (made in China now). I probably could have gotten the spec and ordered a quality bearing from somewhere else but I didn't. Hopefully a Briggs branded bearing is not a total POS.

kevm14 wrote: ↑Sat Mar 21, 2020 1:34 pm

kevm14 wrote: ↑Mon Jan 13, 2020 2:37 pm So for my turbo blower on the Simplicity, the parts are here:
https://www.partstree.com/models/169126 ... -mowers-0/

Takes two bearings, same P/N: 1705897SM

They are sealed type so not designed to be greased. I might want to just replace the two bearings on my turbo blower before the next mowing season. Hopefully it isn't total insanity to take apart to replace. Kinda seems like it is all pressed together though...

Might be time for an air chisel and some attachments.

Ordered two bearings. $15 total from eBay for OEM (made in China now). I probably could have gotten the spec and ordered a quality bearing from somewhere else but I didn't. Hopefully a Briggs branded bearing is not a total POS.

This was a pain. I guess I expected the bearings to be pressed onto the fan shaft/axle and they were. Problem is the upper bearing retainer was stuck on the bearing and you can't pry effectively because it's plastic underneath. Then I tried to work on the lower bearing. I removed all the nuts and bolts holding the thing together but the bearings and retainers were sandwiching the thing together still. So first I tried removing the drive pulley. I got it free but it was stuck on the woodruff key and wouldn't come off the shaft. I pried on it and got it moving more but not before I pringled the crap out of the pulley before I realized I was bending it. Part number for ordering parts.... Then while the pulley was slid up but still on the shaft I removed the nuts and bolts holding the lower bearing retainer on. That caused things to flop around but still the same issue because the bearings were still pressed on the shaft and holding it all together. So I had to give up on the lower bearing and go back to the top. The approach at the top was an angle grinder. I ordered two bearing retainers since I would have to sacrifice at least the top one. Fortunately I got the upper retainer off the bearing without too much grinding. Then I basically hacked away at the bearing until I got everything off but the inner race which was kind of like a wedding ring sized thing. The outer race and balls fell off or flew off while I was grinding. Sparks everywhere. Set off the basement smoke detector and everything. Yeah. Or I tried heating it too and it went on fire.

Eventually I was able to go back to the lower bearing. I learned more about how this thing is put together by staring at it and manipulating everything. I don't know if I could have left the lower bearing and pulley completely alone or I did have to at least loosen stuff. But once the upper bearing was down to the race, I was able to turn the fan blade to a certain position and slide the lower metal housing and fan out of the plastic upper housing.

Once I had the fan in my hand I could work on the pulley which was really getting ruined at this point. I had to manipulate the woodruff key with a punch and hammer because it was causing the pulley to hang up on the shaft. Eventually I got it free but it fought me. The lower bearing retainer came off the bearing which was nice. Then I was able to put the fan in my vice and use a 3 jaw puller on the bearing. It came off!! For the upper bearing race I just secured the fan in the vice again the other way around and used a metal chisel to work at it. Eventually it slipped off the shaft.

Unfortunately the upper part is somewhat mushroomed from all the hammering I did on it before. The metal of the fan is fairly soft, probably on purpose so it doesn't explode if it picks up rocks. In fact I spent some time straightening the fan blades. It is 3 bladed. So it will probably work better.

So yeah in addition to the new bearings, I ordered a new pulley, a new key and 2 bearing retainers.

I will have to grind and/or file the top end of the fan shaft and will use calipers to see what my interference fit specs are. I don't really know how to install the bearing but the lower one should be fairly straight forward. I can install it on the vice and slip it all back together. The upper one has to be installed with the fan basically assembled because it can't fit through the plastic hole on the top of the housing. I don't know how I will support the lower end of the fan shaft while hammering the upper bearing on the shaft. Obviously the factory must have used some kind of special jig and probably a press. The axle is recessed under the plastic housing when installed so it is really hard to support. It is possible that if I grind the upper fan shaft enough the interference fit could enough that I could just hammer it on with a socket or whatever and let the entire housing sort of take it even though everything will flex. Maybe I will be able to slip a piece of angle iron through but then I'd have to support that on something. I will really have to cobble something together so when I am hammering the upper bearing on, the fan is fully supported by the end of the shaft.

You can get parts but this isn't too user friendly to do repairs. And yes, I looked on eBay for replacement blowers. There is no easy way out here - nothing available. So I am forced to repair. I'll have to figure something out with angle iron to get that lower fan axle supported while I bang the upper bearing onto the shaft.

Total spent so far:
Two sealed ball bearings: $14.96
Two bearing retainers (may have been able to reuse the lower one): $16.11
Woodruff key: $6.42
Pulley: $36.95

I probably could be really cheap and attempt to form the pulley back into shape but it seems that even the smallest wobble would chew the belt or throw the belt - I just elected to spend the extra on a new pulley. So about $75 all in. If I could have found a good used blower, believe me, I would have looked at that and probably bought it. None are available. I thought I'd be able to buy a new one even for maybe $150 or something. Nope, nothing. Had to fix it.

Farted around a little more with it to see if I can do anything to help installation.

Here are the new bearings. I wanted to measure the inner diameter and compare it to the diameter of the fan shaft. But first I decided to see what happens if I hammered the old bearing that was still intact onto the fan shaft. It wasn't going well and then the inner race actually cracked/split. Yikes. So here I am removing it with my 3 jaw puller. This does at least remove them well and I should have used this to pull the bearing off the top originally instead of whacking the crap out of it. Would have made disassembly easier, though I still had to grind off the bearing retainer because the bearing was just stuck in it. Again the lower one did release and that retainer is still in one piece. You can actually see the crack of the inner race. Yikes. So I did a ton of filing around the shaft to get rid of the mushroomed area. I should have compared to the bottom part but I am looking at around 0.669-0.6695 on the top though it varies more than that. I actually made a little taper on top to help get the bearing started though I'm sure that's all wrong from an ME point of view. So what does the new bearing measure on the inside? About 0.6655. So that would be an interference fit with around 3.5 thousandths. Seems....reasonable? But the key point is, that is not a slip fit. It will need to be pressed on. And based on the hammering situation I am not sure that is going to be a good idea. But at least I can work with the long/lower bearing on the vice and stuff. The whole thing would be inserted into the plastic housing (upside down) and then the upper bearing would need to be pressed on with everything sort of assembled. THAT is the trickiest part of all and I still don't have a solution. Here are some shots to show how it assembles. I have a little bit to figure it out before the rest of my parts come or before I need to cut the grass. I think I need to use a press and build some kind of jig for it...annoying.

I can always not use the bagger anyway but I like using it. I wouldn't be repairing this if I didn't want to bag.

I may have figured out a method to support the fan shaft using old brake pads from the STS. I will try to get a pic of my idea on the vice but I need at least three hands. Basically one pad takes up the slack between the shaft and bottom of the plastic housing and then I stack several more on top of the plastic. The idea is even though the plastic is in the sandwich there, the pads distribute the load so the plastic shouldn't get too damaged.

Right now that's the best I got and it will be very precarious unless I can somehow lock everything down while hammering the new bearing on the top.

kevm14 wrote: ↑Wed Apr 15, 2020 11:30 am I may have figured out a method to support the fan shaft using old brake pads from the STS. I will try to get a pic of my idea on the vice but I need at least three hands. Basically one pad takes up the slack between the shaft and bottom of the plastic housing and then I stack several more on top of the plastic. The idea is even though the plastic is in the sandwich there, the pads distribute the load so the plastic shouldn't get too damaged.

Right now that's the best I got and it will be very precarious unless I can somehow lock everything down while hammering the new bearing on the top.

Spoilers: My idea WORKED! I'm so happy. I think part of my success was all the filing I did on the fan shaft. The funny part is installing both bearings and reassembling didn't take more than 2 hours. Maybe a tad less even. Took me a lot longer to take it apart, sit for weeks while I ordered parts, etc. Little bit of a saga but if I had used a puller from the beginning I think a lot of my problems wouldn't have happened. So there's that. Also if I realized I could have removed the fan and metal housing from the plastic housing, then I could have worked on removing the old pulley where I could access it and probably not bent the shit out of it with pry bars. That would have saved $37 or whatever. I think I could have reused the old key ($6.42) and lower bearing retainer ($8).

First I installed the bearing on the bottom part of the fan shaft. This was pretty easy. I just put the fan and metal housing in the vice, oiled everything up, found a deep socket that fit perfectly over the shaft but only engaged the inner race of the bearing, and pounded it on carefully with my mini-sledge. Really no trouble at all, just some medium taps. Installed bearing retainer and then pulley with new key. Oh I must have searched for the set screw for like 20 minutes so include that in the time. It was easier to assemble the whole thing not installed in the plastic housing. Yet I took it apart while installed which took way longer. Just didn't know.
So that went fast. Then I decided to install all of the other hardware that sandwiches the whole thing together. I just figured less stuff moving around while trying to install the upper bearing, the better. Then I realized I really could fully install everything and do the upper bearing last. So I mostly did that with the exception of leaving a few bolts loose.

Here's what I'm proud of. Not because it means I know what I'm doing, but because I went from "this is impossible, I need to just order a new one" to "well, I don't have a choice, and I should be able to handle this somehow." Sure enough these brake pads and eventually a small piece of wood did provide exactly the support for the fan shaft that I needed while driving the upper bearing onto the shaft. Even more surprisingly, I could get a few whacks in without all of the brake pads just falling out onto my bench. One key thing was make sure to drive the socket squarely with the sledge. Also I used an old bearing between the deep socket and new bearing just as a buffer.
A brake pad actually cut split in half and did fall out so I found this piece of wood which worked fine.
Like I said that all went together really fast. I even located all of the hardware (other than the great set screw search). Brand new upper bearing installed.
Here is the new bearing retainer installed. Had a little issue with the fan centering so the retainer could capture the bearing and also line up with the bolts but I got it. I coated the retainer with anti-seize which should facilitate easier removal should I have to do this again. If this bearing turns out to be short lived, I could actually use my 3 jaw puller and have this off in like 5 minutes. Then I'd just have to repeat my brake pad shims for reinstallation. The lower bearing would require taking the whole thing apart but again, I could do it really fast again. Hopefully I won't have to. Some people say they gently pry up the bearing seal and pack more grease in there. I'm going to trust that this B&S spec made in China bearing is fine to go on as is. But I need to keep the turbo blower out of the rain. So I may experiment with backing my Simplicity in under my deck to give the blower more shelter from the rain. Yes it lasted over 30 years like this (probably original bearings) but I also don't know if these Chinese bearings would last as long as the originals. I suppose I could have gotten the spec and just ordered an aftermarket bearing from a real bearing company. If this doesn't last, I guess I'll do that next time.
Under side just for kicks.
Great success even though I ran into some hurdles and incurred extra cost (and took over a month to get it done). I thought I might need to get a hydraulic press (still not a bad idea) at one point. This kind of job is actually the name of the game with farm equipment even though this is really just lawn equipment. I'm happy I was able to straighten the blades, too. Overall this should work better and be QUIET. I will give it a try maybe next weekend or something. I was watching my new grass grow thinking...I better be ready with my Simplicity in time! Looks like I will be. Good deal.

I made a new thread to dedicate to this job because the other thread had way too much stuff going on.

Decided to reinstall the turbo blower this evening. Pretty quick to install. So does it work? Of course it works. No issues. I do, however, probably have 2 noisy spindles on my deck (out of 3). I don't know if I could get away with taking them apart and repacking or if they also need new bearings. My options are repack or leave alone until it REALLY needs new bearings.

But the good news is the blower spins properly and only makes fan noise, not bearing noise.

Also I guess this is my new parking situation, backed in. This gives more rain protection for the turbo blower.

kevm14 wrote: ↑Tue Apr 28, 2020 6:48 pm So does it work? Of course it works. No issues. I do, however, probably have 2 noisy spindles on my deck (out of 3). I don't know if I could get away with taking them apart and repacking or if they also need new bearings. My options are repack or leave alone until it REALLY needs new bearings.

Not surprisingly it kept getting worse, which was sort of my plan. I mowed today and kept smelling a burning. I shut off the blades and found smoke coming out from under the deck. Fortunately I keep it clean so little opportunity for a fire but not good. Using my temp gun, I think I found the culprit.
This is one of the idlers. Surprisingly it did not seem to be any of the blade arbor bearings. But it was easy to identify because it was the only pulley that was like 300F. Yeah. Not good.

Removed.
What was I to do? I was in the middle of mowing. Ah, my parts deck. My Deutz came with a green 42" deck that seemed to be identical to my orange 42" Simplicity deck. The same pulley on that one did not feel great either. Rats. However there was one next to it that seemed alright. Were they the same? Calipers said yes (5" OD). So I removed that one.
And installed it on my Simplicity deck. Hopefully the green and orange paint do not conflict.
Results? No more noise! That screaming bearing sound is gone. Not sure how long this will last but....it may last years. Having that parts deck saved time and money. And I was able to finish the job with no issues. It may have taken....30 mins? Simple farm stuff. Love it.

For future use...and hopefully not.

OEM pulley, $35: https://www.ebay.com/itm/2171247-Genuin ... SwjJdd1vuQ

Stens aftermarket, $22: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Stens-280-354- ... SwHwResraU

Other option would be to figure out what spec the bearing is and get one. That would be a bit of a science project. I could start by pressing out the old, dry bearing on my original pulley which would also tell me how difficult that will be and if this is hopeless or possible. I guess I would just use my vice as a press. Side note, I could use a press...