# Does anyone know acceptable play in a 42" ariens deck gearbox bearings??



## hankchill (Apr 15, 2019)

I attempting to fire up my mower deck recently for the first time and it sounded like hell honestly.

I pulled out the deck and the gearbox was very very low on grease. And it looks like the driveshaft hasnt been greased in forever either.

Seems like the Ujoints are not in great condition which I can handle replacing myself. However I wasnt sure about of the in and out play of the shaft going into the gear box. Anyone know the exact play allowed in the gearbox bearing and also is there any adjustments??


----------



## Fedup (Feb 25, 2014)

It won't matter what brand gearbox it is, with the type gearbox in your photos, there should be no endplay (nor side to side movement) in either shaft. In fact you would want just a bit of preload on the bearings. Not going to give any "rolling torque" type figures, I simply do it by feel. Not counting the minor resistance of the shaft seal as it rides on the shaft, I would look for just a slight drag when turning the shaft with the thumb and forefinger. Not much, but enough to notice. It looks like your box is shim adjusted. To tighten the bearings you woul d remove some of the shims from under the cover, bolt it back up tight, then check the feel. If you can't remove enough shims to get where you need to be, you may have to replace some bearings. You would want to check the output shaft as well, It's probably a bit loose too. If so, then the seal on that end may be where the grease went.


----------



## hankchill (Apr 15, 2019)

I spoke with somebody who is familiar with these boxes and mentioned there is an adjustment slotted nut that should rectify the play.

I gotta do a bit more diggin on this setup luckily I have a backup mower in the mean time.


----------

