Doesn't that just suck!!!
The old deck on my 109 was the same way, it made an awful noise and when you pushed the end of the blade up and down it would move a little (like things do when the bearings are bad), I didn't want to spend the money... Ok truthfully, at the time hell I didn't have any money. I took them apart, cleaned them, put them back together, pumped them full of grease and used them just like there wasn't anything wrong with them. The only thing was, I gave them a shot of grease just about every time I mowed. They lasted FOR YEARS, still noisy and still a little loose, but they ran a long, long time.
I know this doesn't fix anything for you, but if you keep them lubed, there is a good possibility that they too will last long enough that you can tuck a little money at a time into a spindle bearing fund, or a new deck fund... and it won't hurt so bad when they do finally shoot craps on you.
Hopefully someone else will have a better plan for you than than I had.
Good Luck
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