From the top
The bolts always break off unless they are greased when installed
It is an electrolytic reaction between Steel & Aluminium so unless the housing needs to be replaced you never ever try to remove the spindle housing. And when you do you use an impact wrench on a low setting & take your time after first wire brushing the other end nice & clean then warming the housing with a propane torch and flooding the bolts with whatever penetrant that you have on hand so the cooling bolt will suck the penetrant down into the hole then go have a cold drink, morning tea, lunch , bed , whatever to allow the penetrant to do its job
Then you warm the housing again and start with the impact wrench.
A standard wrench will always break the heads off but a socket with a T handle is less likely to break the heads off .
Bearings are usually replaced with the housing in place.
If you broke off the leg then it is not being supported properly in your drill press .
If you are breaking drill bits & burning them out then your machining skills are sadly lacking .
The bolts are standard grade 5 self tapping distorted self locking bolts.
They are not hard steel & drill easily.
To drill out you start with a Dremel type tool with a flat ended tungsten bit to flatten the end of the broken bolt off so the drill bit does not wander .
The it is the standard centre punch , followed by a lathe centre drill taken down to the shoulder then you can use a 1/4" drill to make the hole through and step up till you can wind out the remaining threads
If the hole was not centres properly you might need to finish off with a Dremel milling bit
Wear long gloves when doing this because the metal splinters will be very fine & vey sharp
Because these bolts are deformed water can wick down the sides of the bolts and they corrode the full length of the bolt .
As such easy outs & left handed drills rarely work.
Drill bits must come from a machinery shop & not HF, Lowes, Wallys , Evilpay or Scamazon they all sell junk that is hard put trying to make a hole in a pine 2 x 4
The best way by far to remove them is to wire brush the pointed end , clean off the broken end weld a nut to the pointed end and screw it through using an impact wrench .
The bearing in the genuine spindle & all of the aftermarket ones , Prime Line, Rotary & Stens all sell after market spindle housings . are not both standard 6203 one is non standard 6203 .
I always get it wrong but from memory the non std one is the top with a smaller inner race ( or bottom is larger ) .
In any case I fit a zz ( 2 metal seals ) to the standard place and because zz are not as water tight as rs then the grease packed in has some where to go .
Cal EPA regulations do not allow greasable bearings on mowers cause the grease can get onto the grass & cause all life on the planet to be terminated , in fact the Cal models we get here do not have grease nipples
If you never wash the mower spindles ( and you should not wash spindles with water ) then greasing them is not necessary, although packing some better grease in the bearings from new & repacking them every 2 to 4 seasons will make them last a lot longer ( no one ever does it )
