Woods Mower blade spindle

Haas

Well-known Member
Recently, I purchased a Woods L59 mower that had been left outside unused for several years. I was hoping that I could free up the spindles and all would be OK. However, that was not the case, as the mower is very noisy due to the bad spindle bearings. I decided to try and replace the bearings in the spindles rather than buy complete spindle assemblies as recommended by Woods. It appears from the parts diagram that the only thing holding the spindle shaft in the housing is a sleeve with a roll pin on the top side of the spindle. Looks like once the roll pin is out, the shaft should press out the bottom and then the shaft seals and bearings can be reomoved and replaced. However, not the case!! I have a shop press with a 20 ton jack. I've pressed some really tough things with it, but that shaft will not move at all. I'm afraid to put any more pressure on it. What am I missing??? Has woods pressed all this together with an industrial strength press or is there another retainer in there?? Of course there is some rust on the shaft collar, but rust has never kept me from pressing parts apart before.
 
suggest going to woods site and downloading manual. I did this several years ago and found it very helpful as parts break down and assembly instructions are in it. I believe you will need the manual for the L-59 A1 but may be wrong leroy
 
I just went through this this past summmer. I don't remember exactly how that all goes together but I never did get mine apart. My bearings were rusted up solid and the shaft wouldn't even turn at first. With some heat I finally got the bearings to move some. Even with more heat and hydraulic pressure, I never could get the shaft out though. I ------ around with it off and on for two days before I finally broke the casting, and just bought a whole new assembly.
 
Those are pressed in tight and when you install new ones dont press them in too tight or they will turn too hard.
 
I have the manual. It shows a parts diagram, but no instructions on how to replace bearings. The only retainer shown is the sleeve on the shaft and the roll pin. It just says buy a new spindle instead of trying to repair.
 
Must be really tight!!! I've never failed with this press before. I've already bought two new assemblies, but figured I could at least do one of them and save a few bucks. I tried heating just the retainer sleeve, but that did no good. I may try heating the whole casing assembly after it soaks a while with PB blaster. This recalls my battle with the adjustable front axle on my Cub. Finally gave up on that and took it to a shop and they had to split the outside sleeve to get it apart and then reweld.
 
I have taken them apart, and mine weren't that tight, yours must be rusted pretty bad. Be very careful how you support the housing, use a full circle under the housing, not the flange, they break quite easily. Don't ask how I know this, but I got pretty good at brazing! Because it will be hard to get the pin hole lined up again, and the bearing clearance may not be correct, they recommend replacing the whole unit. A dumb system, but it sells parts. How much harder would it of been to have a nut and lock washer like a wheel bearing spindle. The bottom line is if you grease it occasionally and keep it indoors they will last forever.
 

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