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23 year old Bush Hog zero turn. Its been trouble free except for the few times I ran over stuff and boogered up a gearbox and spindle parts.
Now there's a bearing in another spindle going bad and I see Bush Hog has discontinued the spindle housing and the center hollow shaft. Its all pressed together so I have to be careful and not damage the housing or the center shaft.
Heading to the fastener store for new blade bolts and some other pins that are worn out or messed up.
We have another zero turn to run while I fix this one.
Since I'm fresh out of paying work I guess I can't put this mess off any longer......
Do y'all run mowers until there's no more hope?

Yes, and other stuff too.

Good luck!

It makes for a lot of junk sitting about. That's why they call us Rednecks.

It looks to Me like You keep your stuff in good condition. I am always buying mower parts....

Oh yeah!
I'm out front mowing with either my 20 YO Craftsman[bought new] or my 15 YO White[$100 yard sale find] while neighbors are both snickering riding their new $5 & $8K zero's.
Old style riders make it mucho easier to hold a cold beverage while mowing.

Yes and until I just cannot face another repair job.
I gave away a troublesome belt driven 3 blade one and bought a new JD one blade gear driven cutter. I sounds awful when coming up to speed, but cuts like a demon and does not bog down in tall grass and weeds.
Much better now.

always used parts somewhere, after market, or have it made.

Is this it?

I don’t keep anything that doesn’t work. I kept junk at one time, got tired of that.

Nope, my chit is way older than that one. I got the new bearings in the old housing without fugging anything up. Working on the deck belt tensioner now.

Spindle done, working on the spring attachment on the deck belt tensioner. Just a bolt that was almost worn in half. Gonna fix a sleeve to keep it from wearing the spring hook more than it is now. I may be able to get a new spring or something close enough.

I ran my last one until a piece came through the engine block.

Oregon probably makes direct replacement spindle housings for it.

bought my mother-n-law a Lesco Zero turn about 15 years ago, it was used and had about 400 hours on it. It was always going thru spindles.

a couple of years after I bought it, John Deere bought Lesco and immediately stopped production of their zero turn, and spindles were very hard to come by. Didn't help that I'd forget everything I learned from the last time I bought a spindle and I'd have to start over again every time one went out.

Eventually we gave up hope and were tired of driving 30 miles to the John Deere dealer only to have to hope we got the one guy that worked there that knew what we needed. Most times they had no idea what a Lesco mower was.

Then just by luck, I found a guy that was working on a Cub Cadet Tank Series zero turn which was the same mower as the Lesco Zero turn. I have no idea how they ended up manufacturing them but parts were a direct swap out and at the time Cub Cadet was still selling them. Parts were easy to find and cheaper too.

I know that doesn't help but the moral to the story is that you might be able to cross reference parts on another mower that had a longer shelf life and a ready supply of inventory.

It's back together and it even runs well. No more rumbling bad bearing noise and the matched up mulcher blades work great.
I hate working on grass cutters but I hate shelling out money for new ones more.
The damned covid has caused early retirement so I can't say I don't have time to skin my knuckles patching the old mowers.
Drinking beer seems to help with the sore back and skint knuckles, hell I may even start changing my own oil........

Had a Lawnboy push mower that lasted from 1963 to 1988. Heavy cast aluminum deck (magnesium, maybe?), the likes of which they don't make anymore, original engine. Replaced it with a new Lawnboy - thin sheetmetal deck, and the engine didn't last 3 years.

The zero turns I checked out at Tractor Supply except for one Hustler all looked like stamped out toys. My wife inherited a Cub Cadet 50in zero turn all stamped out, frame and all. It works good but it can't stand anything but smooth ground. I've fixed the deck numerous times. She is afraid of the six wheel Bush Hog. Hey, I'll fix it as long as she wants to ride it.....

I had one of those and it had a 2 cycle motor

Them what keeps "junk" about their place, are the salvation of those who keep using worn out junk to mow with.

Couple years ago when a cousin was still making hay, his old Heston haybine broke again. I happened to be up there, stopped to visit a neighboring farmer. Out behind a barn, there sat an old Heston in the weeds. Asked him if my cousin knew it was there, might need some parts from it?

Farmer laughed, said there ain't a Heston within 30 miles of here that my cousin hadn't already robbed of parts in the past 30 years.

The old MF lawn tractors from the 70s, had gear box driven deck spindles. Kept me hoppin' for years finding parts to keep them things cutting. When the local dealer no longer stocked MF parts, the gal in the parts dept. gave me the last three splined shaft couplings they had on the shelf. Finally had to fire up my Ford Jubilee to use the 6' flail mower on the field out back and needed something from the Ford tractor dealer. Went over and there sat a POS old MF lawn tractor that I bought for $200. Another coupla years worth of MF parts outta that baby..

Killing a Sat morning a few years ago at a farm auction I see the exact mower sitting in the long line of mostly junk waiting for the auctioneer. Looking it over I see its not in bad shape so I hang around thinking I'll get it cheap since I see nobody even stopping to look at it. I wuz wrong, dude paid 2/3's of what I paid new and it had to be at least 15 years old at that point!

This one has 1 to 1 90 degree gearbox under the deck. I have always made sure to keep it full of gear oil as they were like $500. I see some still in stock while I was rambling around the net to see if a spindle housing could be found in case I broke mine pushing the bearings out. I was actually patient pushing it apart taking care to find spacers and pipe to keep stress off the housing. In past I've been known to use the "bigger hammer method" trying rush the job.