It's a good point Bob, but if I wanted to stay with the original type I would get the original bearings. I'm actually thinking that the RS seal is better in this application, with all due respect to the J I Case engineers. The steel shield is meant to protect against larger particles, and always has an opening between the inner race and the shield. That offers no protection against dust and water. However, the way the spindle and housing is built on the mower deck should allow no large particles. If anything makes it into the housing, it'll be dust and water. The RS seal has more friction than the steel shield because it touches the inner race, but that should not matter here. As I said, other newer design decks use the 6204-2RS bearing, so that's a confirmation too.myerslawnandgarden wrote: ↑Fri Sep 03, 2021 12:51 am Wouldn't you prefer the steel shielded bearings since that's what J I Case used when built? Just curious.....
Bob
Another advantage of the 2RS seal is that one can remove it carefully and pack the bearings with good quality grease. This is not possible with the steel shielded bearings, because the shield is stamped permanently to the outer race.
As I said before, I have one deck with original and new bearings, so what I'm doing here is a bit of exploration which might help others, since the modification is really easy. I won't, but perhaps someone else can offer this modification service to the community, if it turns out to give more life to the deck on the same set of bearings than with the original ones.
