G'hopper 72" deck grease zerk question

J

Jinzo Ningen

Well-Known Member
For Grasshopper owners who have a 72" mower deck... is there supposed to be a grease zerk fitting on the drive spindle of the rear center (the one closest to the operator's foot rest) drive spindle/pully???

There appears to be an opening for one, but mine has what looks like a small plug in it. It isn't a broken off zerk because I cleaned it up to double check. Just a plug-type thingy screwed in where I would think a zerk should be. The center front pully has a zerk and the two outer pullies do, too.

Just wondering. If it is supposed to have one then I'll stop by my local Tractor Supply to pick one up and install it so I can lube that spindle.

THANKS!!!
 
Re: G'hopper 72" deck gr ease zerk question

I rebuilt spindles on my 9861 Grasshopper deck yesterday. The guy at the dealer said that all the Grasshopper spindles have had grease fittings before the 2013 model. If it's broken off or plugged, you need to fix it and get a way to grease them. If you don't they won't last too long.



I bought a 253 hour 725 yesterday that had been kept very clean and generally well cared for. Apparently the previous owner cleaned it after every use and kept it put away indoors. I think he changed engine oil and greased the pillow blocks, but evidently he did not know to grease the spindles. The deck was making so much noise you wouldn't believe it. For this reason I got it really cheap and took care of the spindles yesterday. It was clear by looking at the grease fittings that they probably were NEVER greased.

For this reason, do whatever you must do to get grease in there. If you just absolutely can't fix it, then wait until it gets noisy or rough and replace the spindle at that time. A completely new and assembled spindle is about $110. The spindle housing alone is about $65.

Good luck with it,
Larry
 
1zuj3d.jpg

As you can see in the picture, there is a spot for a zerk fitting but instead there's a "dummy plug" (for lack of a better term) screwed in the hole. It would perfectly fit a 1/4" grease zerk. Due to the age of the deck, (model #9572 for 1997 GH 721D), I cannot determine if it was built that way by Grasshopper or if it was modified by a previous owner. Either way, I cannot help but scratch my head and wonder why would Grasshopper drill and tap this block for a zerk and then not install one??? Or for that matter, why would a PO just plug off a critical, high-wear area like a PTO wormdrive box? I can put a zerk in there, but I don't want to do that if it isn't supposed to by design. Help or ideas???
 
I might have an answer to your "why" question.

In the old days, yeah I'm old enough to have experienced them, there was a school of thought that you remove the factory plugs, screw in a zerk, grease the item, remove the zerk and put the plug back in place. Not many people bought into that theory, but some did. This might explain it, but regardless, if the machine were mine, I would remove the plug, put a zerk in its place and keep it greased.

I just got through rebuilding the spindles due to the previous owner never greased them. Keep them greased about every 25 or 30 hours and you will go a LONG time before rebuilding the spindles.

My $0.02,
Larry
 
MBDiagMan said:
I might have an answer to your "why" question.

In the old days, yeah I'm old enough to have experienced them, there was a school of thought that you remove the factory plugs, screw in a zerk, grease the item, remove the zerk and put the plug back in place. Not many people bought into that theory, but some did. This might explain it, but regardless, if the machine were mine, I would remove the plug, put a zerk in its place and keep it greased.

I just got through rebuilding the spindles due to the previous owner never greased them. Keep them greased about every 25 or 30 hours and you will go a LONG time before rebuilding the spindles.

My $0.02,
Larry
Click to expand...

Just thought I'd thow something out there to incite some debate in this thread:0)
I've never owned a GH ZTR, but I have owned two previous lawn tractors both of which had grease zerks on the spindles. As I shopped last fall for a ZTR, I had MANY different brand dealers explain to me the reason why most of the "Commercial" ZTR's I looked at(most having cast iron spindle housings versus aluminum) did NOT have grease zerks either on the spindles or the caster wheel housings(another thing both of my lawn tractors had).
Here's their story and they are sticking to it(even the Gravely mechanic at my dealer):
For many, many years(since the early 90's) 99.9% of the lawn cutting machines that you purchased with grease zerks ALL had "sealed bearings". The reason they put zerks on the spindles and wheels was because consumers "demanded the ability to maintain their bearings' lubrication" and the zerks were basically a "placebo" to satisfy the consumer so they would buy that manufacturer's product(because it sported grease zerks). By design, when you added grease.....it "filled up the housing AROUND the bearings" but NONE of the grease ever touched a ball bearing(because they were "sealed")!!!!! All the 6-7 major brands I looked at(Grasshoppers were a wee bit out of my budget) all told me the same story and it took a while to "convince me" to by a several thousand dollar lawn mower that didn't have grease zerks. My Gravely mechanic told me every spindle rebuild/replacement he had performed over the last decade revealed sealed bearings in spindle housings that had grease zerks and he even showed me one that he was currently re-building and indeed it had zerks....AND..."sealed bearings". That, plus the fact that Gravely gives a 3-Year/1,000 Hour Warranty on my spindles(a specific spindle warranty) finally gave me a "warm & fuzzy" to go ahead and buy a ZTR without zerks(a Comercial model ZTR). He(the Gravely mechanic) said.....yeah they will "eventually" wear out all bearings do, but you should expect between 1,500 and 2,000 hours of service out of these "industrial heavy duty service cast iron" spindles. At an average of 50Hour/year mowing my 1.5 acre lot that would be about three lifetimes for me:0)
Soooooooo, all that being said.......maybe you guys should discuss grease zerks and sealed bearings with your Grasshopper dealer(and mechanics) and see if Grasshopper has also gone the route of giving you a "grease zerk placebo" if your machine was manufactured after 1990. And.....what I was told was that if indeed your grease zerks delivered grease "into the bearings" that you had better be VERY CAREFUL to not "overfill them" or use an "air grease gun at high psi" or you will rupture the upper or lower seals in the spindle housing allowing dirt, grime & water to enter....doing more harm than good in regard to your spindle bearing longevity.
OK....let the debate begin!!!!!!!!!:0)
 
No debate from here DJ. What you write sounds totally plausible. In fact, after buying all new spindles day before yesterday, this has me wondering if I should take one apart and see if they are double sealed bearings, and they may very well be. The GH dealer told me that there were no grease zerks at all on the 2013 models which is consistent with the scenario that you describe.

Actually, it wouldn't be too much trouble to simply lift off the deck cover, remove the spindle bolt, drive out the shaft and drive out a bearing. I kind of need to know whether they are or they are not.

Larry
 
MBDiagMan said:
No debate from here DJ. What you write sounds totally plausible. In fact, after buying all new spindles day before yesterday, this has me wondering if I should take one apart and see if they are double sealed bearings, and they may very well be. The GH dealer told me that there were no grease zerks at all on the 2013 models which is consistent with the scenario that you describe.

Actually, it wouldn't be too much trouble to simply lift off the deck cover, remove the spindle bolt, drive out the shaft and drive out a bearing. I kind of need to know whether they are or they are not.

Larry
Click to expand...

Yeah...seems like "everything" you buy nowadays is "disposable" when it wears out(or made in China......or both:0(
 
This 'drive spindle' referred to above is actually a pulley that is geared to the pto shaft, maybe by a right angle gearbox . There is no 'spindle' involved with this pulley. The only spindles I see on my deck are left, right ,and front center .
 
Good catch tm!

I am not familiar with how to maintain the gearbox. I do know that my 9861 deck has a different gearbox than the earlier decks.

OP, it might be a good thread to start, to show that picture and ask if anyone knows what maintenance should be done on that gearbox.

Larry
 
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