Flange Bearing

Raise the front of the mower. You will have to use something other that a mower lift due to having to remove the wheel. Secure the mower on some type of stand for safety. Remove the steering rod from the axle frame. Remove the tie rod that connects to the other wheel. The axle frame should just slide out. In my case there was a good bit of wear where the bearing flange goes, so I had to build that up using JB Weld. Once I had applied the JB Weld, I let it set for about 12 hours and then used a file to mill the hole so the bearing flange would slide in. I put a small amount of grease on the inside of the bearing flange, slide the axle frame spindle back into the axle frame through the top and bottom flanges, lowered the mower, replaced the steering rod and the tie rod and was finished. TIP: If you notice either of the wheels starting to lean in at the top. Go ahead and replace the bearing flange. If you catch it before it causes damage top the flange hole in the axle frame, you won't have to deal with the JB Weld.

Removed bolt from the bottom of steering shaft and pulled up remover the old bushing and grease new bushing and shaft and dropped new bushing in hex indent and put shaft back through and bottom cap and bolt and tightened and put it down on the ground and tested works fine

Removed cap nut removed axle insert bushing replace cap nut job done.

Removed front spindles
Replaced bushings
Installed cap on left side
Reinstalled spindle assembly's

Removed front wheels, removed wheel spindles from the frame fabricated steel bushing for worn frame to except the new plastic bushings and welded it into the frame. Installed new bushings on both sides lubricated both spindles and reinstalled. Installed front wheels and greased, complete.

removed left and right wheels- replaced bushing -good now

We were also changing the front Pivot Axle (ordered separately). We had to use our car jack to jack up the front of the mower - I have a mower jack, but that only picks up one side and we needed both front wheels off the ground. Then we had to remove the wheel on the side with the steering assembly, then the old steering assembly. There were 3 of us working on it - 2 senior females and 1 senior male. It was hard work for us, but we just took our time and got it done without any damages or injuries to ourselves or the mower. Some of the bolts are a little hard to get to - and you have to remove some other things from the front to get to the Pivot Axle - but it was worth it. It is now steering like a new mower once more. I mowed for 3 hours this morning and it worked great. Good to fix things yourself if you can.

Had to weld the hole where the flange bearing went, it was worn badly.

Removed bearing plate. Removed connecting bolt on steering column. Replaced parts and re assembled.

Taking everything off to get to the gear assembly including moving gas tank, top of dash, dropping the front of the deck, removing front tires...After fighting with the phillips screw at the bottom of steering shaft for an hour finally had to use torch to heat it then use the 1/2" impact to break it loose...If you follow your exploded parts list and not lose any parts this repair is just time consuming but is not that hard...