Craftsman Set of Two 187292, 192870, 532187292, 532192870 Spindle Assembly with Grease Zerk, Husqvarna Poulan

Upping my review from 3 stars to 5 stars. So now it has been about two and a half years of tough mowing on over an acre of land, typically with tough, thick, sometimes woody weeds, and a tree root here and there, especially after the rainy season and I have had no problems with the spindles. I even managed to run over some thick wall EMT (electrical conduit) at full throttle, enough to stop the blades cold and apparently the spindles are none the worse for the experience. (Do not try this at home.) I managed to pump some grease into the grease fittings on top of the spindles after dropping the mower deck to make sure all the parts were still where they were supposed to be. So maybe I was wrong about the grease fittings; the grease is going somewhere. (See my initial review for my assessment of the grease fittings.) I hope I was wrong about that. Bottom line - I would not hesitate to purchase these spindles next time around and I can in good conscience recommend them.New edit addressing blade attachment issue.I recently reviewed and gave this product three stars based on what appears to be a cosmetic grease fitting. I left that first review portion at the end of this additional information and did not change the star rating. As an aside, after sorting out the new blade attaching issue described below and trying it all out briefly, the spindles seem to function properly.This additional review of the same product focuses on the blade attachment bolts that come supplied with the mandrel assembly that may be contributing to premature failure of the spindle bearings and/or stripping of the star/pulley attachment. The first time I attempted to attach a blade using the supplied bolt/flat washers, I discovered that the blade, although the bolt was torqued properly, noticeably “see-sawed” up/down on the spindle. In other words, the attachment bolt flat washer was not compressing the blade against the round plate behind the “star” as it should. I started looking for the problem and here is what I found.We need to start with the blades. The predominant style blade is not absolutely flat; the grass side is slightly concave and has a slight downward (or upward if looking at the blade from the grass side) “lip” on each side while the top side is slightly convex and the sides roll off (down) slightly. This slight difference can possibly affect how the flat washer compresses the blade down on the spindle, based on the type of washer used.After a lot of trial and error and measurements I discovered that when the blade was mounted upside down (grass side up), the bolt-washer would compress the blade against the spindle, making a good, solid contact as expected – no blade wobble. The star points were slightly below or even with the blade surface when observed prior to installing the bolt. Thus the flat washer was pressing on the blade. (Note: The flat washer is milled out on the top (spindle) side to clear the spindle lip that protrudes slightly beyond the star.) This is a good thing.When installing the blade grass side down (normal), the star points were protruding slightly above the surface of the blade. In this configuration, the flat washer was not contacting the blade, it was compressing against the protruding star allowing the blade to slightly wobble as there was no washer compression directly on the blade itself. This is a bad thing.If the blade is flat, I don’t think there would be an issue. However most of the stock blades I have been using for years have that ever-so-slight curvature and side lips I mentioned earlier. And that is not an issue if you use the original “umbrella” type bolt-washer as the washer and star never come into contact and the washer always compresses the blade to the spindle, and life is good.Some reviews have mentioned premature failures with this product related to bearing failures and stripping of the star-pulley attachment. I am wondering if in some of those cases, the bolts were torqued but the slight see-saw of the blades went unnoticed due to the flat washer compressing on the star and not the blade. I am guessing here, but I would imagine that high frequency vibration caused by the slightly wobbling blades might have contributed to the spindle bearing failures and star-pulley stripping issues.So perhaps the take-home here is that we might be mindful of the types of blades and attachment bolts/washers we are using and check carefully for any blade wobble however slight, before we crank old Betsey up for a day of mowing under the sun. Just something to consider – there is a reason for just about everything.COSMETIC GREASE FITTING (1st review)Grease fitting appears to me to be totally cosmetic. Both top and lower bearings are sealed I believe. I removed the grease fitting and found an empty (no grease) cylinder about 2 and 3/8 in deep with a tiny hole (maybe 1/64th in diameter) on the side near the bottom about where the side of the top bearing would be. So even if some grease was pushed through that tiny hole, the bearing is sealed; where is it supposed to go to lube that top bearing? I reinstalled the grease fitting and pumped grease in (maybe 25 pumps) until it started to come out at the grease fitting, not the bearing seal as it should if it actually managed to get through the bearing seals to the ball bearings. So as far as I can tell without actually disassembling it completely, the grease fitting is just a free customer "feel good" feature. If you look at the top bearing, and spindle (with the installed lower bearing) separately (not in the assembled mandrel) you will see they are sealed. Cross referencing bearings yields the same sealed feature. I was disappointed that no instructions came with the mandrel assembly. I would have expected, given it had a grease fitting, that it would tell me if it had been greased during assembly, what type grease to use and when to grease (i.e. after so many hours use.) I will say this, it was an easy fit all around mechanically - no issues there. Unless somebody can tell me where the magic happens and the top bearing (only) gets greased through the fitting, I intend to just treat them as sealed bearings and move on. Reliability remains to be seen.

These fit my Craftsman YTS3000 42" ride along mower perfect. They went in great and fit my old pulleys like the originals. I will caution, inspect your old pulleys because my old ones were slightly stripped but still grab (they are star patterned/ribbed to not slip when bolted). Great buy!

PERFECT! If you are handy you will not be disappointed with these spindles.I have a Husqvarna YTH20K46, single cylinder 46" cut riding mower. I've had it for almost six years and it's taken quite a beating. Recently I hit a few roots and stumps washed clear by heavy rains and broke two of the four bolt tabs off of the right hand side spindle. Bent the blade but I had a spare. I located the part number 532192870 on line for complete spindles, not just the housing. Then I found these, a matched pair. Most housings alone without the bearing or shaft can run upwards of $35.00Removing the old spindles was more difficult than the installation. The original mounting bolts were factory tight and five of the eight broke off while trying to remove them. The pulley spindle nuts were also a challenge but I got the original factory pulleys off. That was the only hard part.Since I was going to replace one why not replace the pair? They each come with four hardened steel bolts and the bolt holes are pre-tapped. They are long enough to go through the belt keepers and through the spindles so there's no chance of being too short. My only addition was a washer on top of the deck under the head of the bolt to ensure the bolts were tight. The spindles lined up with the original deck bolt holes and fit the deck perfectly.The spindles include a grease (zerk) fitting on top. I gave each spindle ten pumps of wheel bearing grease after installing them. No leaks, no blown seals. They come with a recessed pulley nut, and the spacer for under the pulleys. The spindles fit the stock pulleys exactly too.After installing the spindles I suggest installing the blades first with the included washers and blade bolts, and then tightening the large spindle nuts. This way you can hold the spindle from turning with your other (gloved) hand or a well-placed foot.Be safe around even a dull blade.I gave all the mounting bolts one last check and then installed the pulley covers on each end, checked the pulleys and blades for clearance, and then installed the deck and belt.Afterwards, I mowed about an acre of uneven lawn keeping the deck at the #4 setting. I plan to install a new pair of blades to compensate for the original damage and ensure a balanced cut and the least possible vibration.UPDATE: 27 JULY 2015 - With two new blades I mowed through two weeks worth of overgrown grass. Other than having to adjust the belt keepers that were slightly bent during the installation it went off without a hitch. Two thumbs up.

These mandrels fitted my Craftsman mower perfectly. The product is better than the Sears factory parts for several reasons.1. The Mandrels come with all the fittings to mount the parts to the deck and secure the pulley to the shaft (including spacer) as well as nut and washer for the blade. The Sears mandrel comes without any of the fittings and also requires you to tap the bolts into the mounts, these units come pre-tapped making for a much faster replacement and is easy to secure.2. These units are fitted with a grease nipple so you can grease the bearings for longer life. I put 50 zerks of grease into each mandrel. Some reviews here complain the bearings burn out quickly, maybe they omitted the grease. Its best to pump the grease in before fitting to the mower deck. I used lithium grease.Finally the cost is 1/3rd what you would pay at Sears for the Mandrels and all the fittings.I discovered it is possible to replace the mandrels without having to remove the deck, remove the pulley bolt before removing the blades. It is then very straight forward to remove the mandrel.

This product is not inexpensive but does the job well. The one grouse is that it does not come with a set of mounting screws, which are essential. These are supply automatically from most other suppliers.