Bearing Replacement on Value Leader EF175 Flail Mower

If you've got one of these Value Leader flail mowers, it's a pretty sure bet you'll need a bearing replacement for the spinning shaft that holds the blades. For me, I got to about year 12 before mine went out. It was the right side bearing. Unfortunately, neither the manufacturer nor the distributor offer any manual or timely tech support, so in my case, I just kinda figured it out. It was the right side that went out and for me it was obvious, as it was a loud and somewhat violent shaking over on the right side (looking toward the front of the tractor). My repair was relatively easy and cheap. See below. Note, see #6 before you start.

Here's what I did:

1. Lifted and safely braced the mower using the 3 point hitch.

2. Removed the skids

3. Took off the belt cover, untensioned the belts on the carrier holding the top shaft (I also had the loosen the pivot bolts).

4. After removing the belts, I pulled out the allen bolts holding on the lower pulley and pulled it off. The pulley is a weird split design and the center stays on the shaft. I didn't need to take the center off, so I didn't. Once the pulley is off, you can get to the bolts holding left side bearing, to get ready to drop the shaft out of the mower.

5. Moving to the right side, I removed the grease fitting and the four bolts holding the bearing and shaft and tried to drop the shaft out. The problem I ran into is the left side slot doesn't actually allow to shaft to drop out at this point and I actually only ended up dropping the right side, which is where my failed bearing was anyway.

6. Possible/probable shortcut - as it turns out, the bearings can swivel. This means I may not have needed to do the work to drop the whole shaft. It's possible I could have only dropped the right side without doing any of the work I did on the left side - a HUGE time saver.

7. Clean up the shaft and re-install a UC205 bearing, which I found is very standard and reasonably priced. There is a set screw that is apparently not used, as I found there's no way to access and tighten it.

8. It was great to have the mower back in operation and working well, but after having seen how little the bearing is isolated from dirt and plant fibers, I expect I'll be doing this again! Good luck and message me if you have questions and comments.

   

   Start removing the lower pulley while the belts are still tight so the shaft doesn't turn

   

   Here's where to loosen the belts

   

   Loosen the pivot bolts too

   

   After you pull the pulley off, you can access the bolts holding the shaft and bearing. Use a good gear puller. It's really tight. I'm not sure how those bolts hold the pulley on, but they do.

   

   The shaft after you pull off the old broken bearing.