(ET) Mower motor bearings

[Chris Tromley <ctromley gmail com>]

Mowing season is coming and my deck is in pieces.  I have a New Idea EGT 150 with a mid-mount deck, so low profile motors.  I pulled the motors and found that the brush end bearings are fine, but each drive end bearing feels rough.  This is with the armature still in the end housing, with the hub and that odd-looking seal in place.  Not sure about that seal.  How effective is it, and could it be giving me a false rough feeling as I turn the bearing?

 

My plan is to get everything together while I'm waiting for my bearing splitter to arrive.  (I understand the weird way the hubs come off.)  Are the top and bottom bearings identical (so I can use the bearing number for the brush end to order the bearings for the drive end, which I can't see yet)?  Has anyone used a sealed bearing there to protect against deck wash-downs?  Or maybe that oddball original seal could be replaced by an equivalent spring lip seal?

 

Or maybe the bearings are fine, the seals are messing me up, and this tear-down is a waste.  Anyone with experience care to give me some advice?  One reason I'm doing this is that I plan to install Gator blades (higher current draw), so I want everything to be running smoothly and efficiently.

 

Chris