Snapper Mower owners Beware chinese parts

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I have a 10 year old walk behind 21 inch wide Snapper lawn mower. Its self propelled and has the rubber drive wheel that snapper has used a long time.
The bearing that holds the hex shaft that the rubber wheel is on, failed. I ordered another bearing from the snapper dealer. Only $6, small bearing 7026693yp about 1 1/4 in diameter and 3/8 inch thick. It came in, I picked it up in a sealed snapper bag. made in china. Took it home, looked at it, on one side there was no enclosure around the bearing , that is it was open and you could see into the interior where the small ball bearings are. the old bearing was covered with metal on both sides, not totally sealed but pretty much sealed. the new one is open as described,
if its designed that way, doubt it will last very long with all the mower dust and dirt.

My guess is it a manufacturing mistake. a bad one. I installed it as I needed to mow my lawn pronto , it might last til fall. I called snapper but they were not sure about the bearing being sealed, I sent them a pix. no answer yet
The snapper part dealer people are grumpy (maybe don't like DIY folks) but I don't like $75 an hour and wait 2 weeks either.
see pix of old and new bearings at
http://www.thehulltruth.com/dockside-cha...tml#post8137339
 
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Look through mcmaster-carrs bearing catalog. You'll need exact, to the mm dimensions. You got a bad interchange. Not neccessarily caused by being made in China.
 
Parts are made cheaper every year. What the manufactures call upgrades, isn't always the case. Polaris for examples are making their quads lighter than ever. To compare a 2006 to a 2015, is insane. The Polaris dealer told me, we use less metal and make it lighter because its better metal-Yeah, right?? As far as Chinese parts. Some will work fine. You are paying about half what you would pay for a American or European part. I ve found some Chinese parts will be fine , others will not. I bought a Chinese carb for a Honda, it weighed less than half the stock Honda carb, will it make a difference. I don't know yet, maybe just lighter metal. How heavy does a carb need to be. You will find nothing made like it used to be. Too many people, we need to give them jobs, that would be making new stuff.
 
As far as I can remember, you just need the same bearing number, followed by "ZZ". Z designates shielded.

Any bearing house will be able to help you. King Bearings is ubiquitous. Or, there are many online sources.

Also.......You may be better off with sealed bearing, for that application. The designation for that would be the same dimensional bearing number, followed 2RS.
 
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I would not blame China for this. Snapper sourced the part and sent it to their dealers. Slap some grease on it and call it a day. I'm sure Snapper does not want people calling and bothering them.
 
Originally Posted By: edwardh1
what does the yp mean?
and is the better part number
7076693 yp zz
or 7026693 zz

0r

7026693 2rs

Thanks


yp is not a standard bearing identifier that I am aware of. ZZ is double shielded.....Not sealed. Shields are meant to keep chunks out, and they do not add friction, since there is no actual contact.

2RS is sealed, with lip seals keeping the grease in and the dirt out. Lip seals are more easily damaged than shields, but may work for your application, as long as no sharp pokey things get to them.

As far as the numbers being different....I would go with the numbers off the original bearing, not the replacement. It is possible that the replacement is either narrower, or specified for a lower load.
 
I'm not surprised by this given Briggs has owned Snapper for years now. Parts are going to be less robust than back in the day.

I wouldn't let the lack of a shield scare me. Like said above, they're far from a seal anyway.

FWIW- I own a later model "Snapper Commercial" mower.
 
It'll be fine. It might not last as long as the original, but I bet it will last a long time. Might be able to find an old stock battery on eBay or in local mower shops.
 
Originally Posted By: bubbatime
It'll be fine. It might not last as long as the original, but I bet it will last a long time. Might be able to find an old stock battery on eBay or in local mower shops.


battery????
 
Originally Posted By: edwardh1
Originally Posted By: bubbatime
It'll be fine. It might not last as long as the original, but I bet it will last a long time. Might be able to find an old stock battery on eBay or in local mower shops.


battery????


Auto correct strikes again. Meant to say bearing.
 
Originally Posted By: RF Overlord
Are you supposed to pack it with grease, like an old-school wheel bearing?


who knows - with an open bearing.
I greased mine with some thick grease that my yamaha outboard dealer uses for "everything" and has for 30 years. omc triple something, expensive stuff.
Grease can also of course attack and hold dirt- is there any dirt around a mower? Hmmmm.
I think if I could put in a totally sealed bearing I would. The original part was about 90% sealed and lasted 10 years (good enuf 4 me), but open bearing saved what $0.15 ?? and I replaced the old one cause it moved and shook some (indicating wear of course) when mower was running.
This bearing spins at the speed of the rubber drive disc , which is not slow.
 
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I just found out the same thing. My Snapper commercial mower's rear axle bearings needed replacement. The Snapper bearing has no seals or grease. Just a crude ball bearing.

Interestingly, the Snapper Commercial mowers on the showroom floor have very nice looking, SEALED BEARINGS!!

Maybe this is an issue with all the Snapper replacement parts?

Or, maybe the Commercial parts have a different part number? And they don't typically stock them.
 
Originally Posted By: HM12460
That is so sad. Snapper used to be a very well built, quality machine.


That was then when everything in it were all American made. Nowadays, it is Made in the USA of US and Global Parts.
 
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