Cadet 100 Rear Axle Endfloat

[Cody Crowley]

I pulled the wheels off of my newly acquired Cub Cadet 100 restoration project to start disassembly and I noticed that the rear axle shafts had considerable endfloat and can be pulled in and out. The left side axle was also dirtier that the right, leading me to believe the oil seal is shot. Is this a major issue, and what can I do to rectify it? Looks like the oil seals are NLA and not sure if new needle bearings would help endfloat.

 

[mgonitzke]

Define "considerable." By design there is axial play, maybe 0.080" or so.

A 100 should have bronze plain bearings, not needle bearings. The seals are not NLA. I'd replace both the sleeve bearings and the axle seals and make sure the axle shafts are not worn.

 

[Cody Crowley]

While my measurement isn’t exact (I haven’t bought a dial indicator gauge or micrometer yet), the left side hub moves 1/16th of an inch and the right side hub moves about half of that (1/32nd of an inch). I managed to get new seals from IHCCW, but Parts Tree and Cub Cadet don’t have them available according to their websites. Parts tree shows a needle bearing as part of the rear axle assembly, along with a bushing and snap rings:
https://www.partstree.com/models/100-cub-cadet-garden-tractor/rear-axle-22/