Not all steel spindles had grease fittings. Hopefully you don't have the aluminum spindles.
You can still grease your spindles manually with the spindle shafts out. I haven't had to try this but should work in theory.
That sounds like a PITA, it is so easy to drill and tap a hole and screw in a zerk.
MattA wrote: ↑Tue Aug 17, 2021 9:59 pm
I've sharpened my blades several times this year to get better cutting performance. I found I wasn't making the blades sharp enough and the tips of my grass blades sometimes looked slightly torn and frayed. I ended up doing some research to find out the ideal blade sharpening angle is about 30° and I failed at finding an inexpensive tool to measure the blade sharpened angle.
I ended up measuring a new blade I had laying around with a caliper and doing some trigonometry. The blade thickness was 0.200” and the length of the sharpened edge was about 0.340”. Taking the inverse sine of 200/340 comes up with 36°. No need to have a scientific calculator, you can put “inverse sine (200/340) in degrees” into googles search function and it will spit out 36°. If you wanted to target 30°, the length of the sharpened edge needs to be increased to 0.400”.
Balancing the RM series blades requires a bit of guess work with one of those $7 plastic balancers due to the blade having a “DD” mounting hole instead of a round hole. You have to guess at the center of the DD hole. I searched the internet for a while to find a blade adapter that I once saw posted on the old forum. I bought the adapter and it does not fit on my $7 plastic balancer. The hole size is something odd like 0.560”. To make matters worse, the adapter does not fit in my blades DD hole (new or used blades) The adapter is a few thousandths larger than the blade hole.
Anyways I've got my blades balanced and sharpened to 30°. Not sure its going to make much of a difference. I'll have to wait for this weekend to try out the sharpened blades and quieter bearings.
Matt, I got one of these, albeit old but good enough for angle measurement.
Not all steel spindles had grease fittings. Hopefully you don't have the aluminum spindles.
You can still grease your spindles manually with the spindle shafts out. I haven't had to try this but should work in theory.
That sounds like a PITA, it is so easy to drill and tap a hole and screw in a zerk.
Gordy
Gordy, good idea! I will do that.
By the way guys, I found an old Z9504 bearing in my junk box and took off the metal shield. It does have a soft plastic seal on the inner side. There is no seal on the outer side. I suppose water can easily get in?
Matt, could it be that you just got a bad batch of bearings? I used to be into photo cameras, the mechanical type. After the war the Russians loaded up the full Zeiss Ikon factory onto trains and were making copies of German cameras and lenses. They even got some of the engineers. So the tools and knowledge were the same. Some lenses I got were stellar, but most were duds. Quality was not consistent.
So maybe the same applies to these bearings. I know that some bearings don't come packed with enough grease. The problem with the Z9504 is that you can't take the metal shield off to repack them. This is also another reason for me to switch to the 6204-2RS bearings, I should be able to repack them. Maybe it's worth considering taking the shield off on the inner side of the housing so you can pack them with grease. There's a whole thread about this on the old site.
MattA wrote: ↑Tue Aug 17, 2021 9:59 pm
I've sharpened my blades several times this year to get better cutting performance. I found I wasn't making the blades sharp enough and the tips of my grass blades sometimes looked slightly torn and frayed. I ended up doing some research to find out the ideal blade sharpening angle is about 30° and I failed at finding an inexpensive tool to measure the blade sharpened angle.
I ended up measuring a new blade I had laying around with a caliper and doing some trigonometry. The blade thickness was 0.200” and the length of the sharpened edge was about 0.340”. Taking the inverse sine of 200/340 comes up with 36°. No need to have a scientific calculator, you can put “inverse sine (200/340) in degrees” into googles search function and it will spit out 36°. If you wanted to target 30°, the length of the sharpened edge needs to be increased to 0.400”.
Balancing the RM series blades requires a bit of guess work with one of those $7 plastic balancers due to the blade having a “DD” mounting hole instead of a round hole. You have to guess at the center of the DD hole. I searched the internet for a while to find a blade adapter that I once saw posted on the old forum. I bought the adapter and it does not fit on my $7 plastic balancer. The hole size is something odd like 0.560”. To make matters worse, the adapter does not fit in my blades DD hole (new or used blades) The adapter is a few thousandths larger than the blade hole.
Anyways I've got my blades balanced and sharpened to 30°. Not sure it's going to make much of a difference. I'll have to wait for this weekend to try out the sharpened blades and quieter bearings.
A properly maintained deck should only make the sound from the air movement and you should then hear only the grass getting hit by the blades. Most mower decks are not this quiet because the bearings very slowly get louder, most of the time until you realize it is loud, maybe. Turning the deck on and off should be nearly no difference in the loudness of the running tractor.
You may be overdoing it on the grease. Personally, I hate it when the spindles are greased. It just makes a mess and often the grease is contaminated to the point if it did actually get forced into the bearing it would kill the bearing. Applying a thin layer on the spindles during assembly is all that is required.
Your adapter is the best, correct almost, one from Magna-Matic. Use a file to get it to fit. If you just give it a little shave it will fit the blades.
The only time I powerwash any implement with bearings is just before teardown to replace the bearings. Once you powerwash these things you have risked your bearings. The sealed bearings are dust seals. The seals are not for standing water let alone pressurized water.
MattA wrote: ↑Tue Aug 17, 2021 9:59 pm
I've sharpened my blades several times this year to get better cutting performance. I found I wasn't making the blades sharp enough and the tips of my grass blades sometimes looked slightly torn and frayed. I ended up doing some research to find out the ideal blade sharpening angle is about 30° and I failed at finding an inexpensive tool to measure the blade sharpened angle.
I ended up measuring a new blade I had laying around with a caliper and doing some trigonometry. The blade thickness was 0.200” and the length of the sharpened edge was about 0.340”. Taking the inverse sine of 200/340 comes up with 36°. No need to have a scientific calculator, you can put “inverse sine (200/340) in degrees” into googles search function and it will spit out 36°. If you wanted to target 30°, the length of the sharpened edge needs to be increased to 0.400”.
Balancing the RM series blades requires a bit of guess work with one of those $7 plastic balancers due to the blade having a “DD” mounting hole instead of a round hole. You have to guess at the center of the DD hole. I searched the internet for a while to find a blade adapter that I once saw posted on the old forum. I bought the adapter and it does not fit on my $7 plastic balancer. The hole size is something odd like 0.560”. To make matters worse, the adapter does not fit in my blades DD hole (new or used blades) The adapter is a few thousandths larger than the blade hole.
Anyways I've got my blades balanced and sharpened to 30°. Not sure it's going to make much of a difference. I'll have to wait for this weekend to try out the sharpened blades and quieter bearings.
A properly maintained deck should only make the sound from the air movement and you should then hear only the grass getting hit by the blades. Most mower decks are not this quiet because the bearings very slowly get louder, most of the time until you realize it is loud, maybe. Turning the deck on and off should be nearly no difference in the loudness of the running tractor.
You may be overdoing it on the grease. Personally, I hate it when the spindles are greased. It just makes a mess and often the grease is contaminated to the point if it did actually get forced into the bearing it would kill the bearing. Applying a thin layer on the spindles during assembly is all that is required.
Your adapter is the best, correct almost, one from Magna-Matic. Use a file to get it to fit. If you just give it a little shave it will fit the blades.
The only time I powerwash any implement with bearings is just before teardown to replace the bearings. Once you powerwash these things you have risked your bearings. The sealed bearings are dust seals. The seals are not for standing water let alone pressurized water.
The deck cut really nice this past Saturday evening. That specific bearing noise I targeted is gone but the deck is still loud with my 3M ear protection on. The deck makes this droning sound which I've always assumed is the blades drifting in and out of sync with each other. At some point I will get some new bearings ordered from Bob and replace them all again.
I do plan to adjust the Magna-Matic adapter at some point. Project time is limited with a 3 month old + a 2.5 year old at home.
You may be overdoing it on the grease. Personally, I hate it when the spindles are greased. It just makes a mess and often the grease is contaminated to the point if it did actually get forced into the bearing it would kill the bearing. Applying a thin layer on the spindles during assembly is all that is required.
I respectfully disagree The grease is not to lubricate, it is to displace air, that with heating and cooling brings moisture into the spindle housing. I have replaced many spindle bearings, where I found rusty water on top of the bottom bearing. Care to guess which bearing was always bad Dad got me started installing zerks on spindle housings Looong ago. We went from 1.5-2 years on the bearing changes to 5-6 years. For me it is well worth the mess
You may be overdoing it on the grease. Personally, I hate it when the spindles are greased. It just makes a mess and often the grease is contaminated to the point if it did actually get forced into the bearing it would kill the bearing. Applying a thin layer on the spindles during assembly is all that is required.
I respectfully disagree The grease is not to lubricate, it is to displace air, that with heating and cooling brings moisture into the spindle housing. I have replaced many spindle bearings, where I found rusty water on top of the bottom bearing. Care to guess which bearing was always bad Dad got me started installing zerks on spindle housings Looong ago. We went from 1.5-2 years on the bearing changes to 5-6 years. For me it is well worth the mess
Gordy
The subject has had a fair amount of debate over the years. And, that means there are different points of view on the subject. I just mainly dislike the mess when they are filled with grease. I am more neutral on whether there is a compelling reason to do it.
The larger topic is the bearing quality. With so much crap being made in China and then sold as being good quality, but it is not, it is hard to navigate.
On bearing quality, my point about using a different size bearing (like the 6204) is that one would have a lot more options for quality bearings.
Also, should the deck use C3 bearings? I'm inclined to say yes, the spindle assembly must get hot when used. C1 bearings will not allow for enough expansion when hot, thus wearing much much faster. I think @Spike188 said he only installs C3 bearings in his decks.
Matt , do you know what bearings you installed, C1 or C3?
That sounds like a PITA, it is so easy to drill and tap a hole and screw in a zerk.
The adapter is a few thousandths larger than the blade hole.
The grease is not to lubricate, it is to displace air, that with heating and cooling brings moisture into the spindle housing. I have replaced many spindle bearings, where I found rusty water on top of the bottom bearing. Care to guess which bearing was always bad 
, do you know what bearings you installed, C1 or C3?