Servicing a Husqvarna 42” Mower

This trusty Husqvarna 18.5 hp 42” riding mower has been in service for this family for seven years now. It actually belongs to Andrea’s dad. You know it’s a close family when a man is letting his son-in-law and daughter drive his lawn tractor!

Backup Lawnmowing Staff Hard at Work

I recently had the opportunity to service this mower again. I probably haven’t taken care of it as well as I should have, but it’s a quality machine. This month I did a tune up on the engine. I changed the spark plug, fuel filter, air filter, oil, and air filter. This mower is definitely easily serviceable. No need to take it into a shop for this kind of work. I also changed the mower blades. I thought I was done but boy was I wrong! Keep reading below:

Unfortunately after changing the mower blades, I noticed that the mower was cutting unevenly. At first, I thought I had somehow bent the brand new blade. But it turned out that the bearings in the spindle on the left side of the mower deck had failed completely.

Every grown man should have a handful of friends in his contact list that he knows he can either call or text with a question About projects he has no experience in. I quickly texted my buddy Marty with a video of the symptoms. I could grasp the mower blade and wobble the whole blade and spindle back-and-forth underneath. His reply was brief “Amazon is your friend. You need to order a new spindle bud!” Keep reading below:

Thankfully it was really easy to find and decently inexpensive. I ordered it that night and it was on my porch the next afternoon. Of course it was a couple of days before I was able to fit time in my schedule. I stopped by late one evening to my father-in-law‘s place. The lower deck fortunately is easily removed with a matter of five cotter pins. And then it was just a matter of unbolting, the old spindle, bolting in the new spindle, and reattaching the mower blade. Putting the deck back on the mower was a breeze.

Of course with every project comes the normal running back-and-forth trying to find the right tool. I did end up having to go back to my house to find a large deep well socket set to remove the 22 mm bolt from the top of the spindle. I probably actually only spent an hour working on the machine before I had the mower deck back on and ready to go for the next day’s mowing.