Deck Greasing Surprise

[MikePA]

When I greased the spindles on the deck on my garden tractor I knew when they were full when grease began appearing right above the blade, usually after about 10 pumps of the grease gun.

Like a good 'do bee', I set about greasing the 914A mmm deck on my TC25D when I got home from work today. The deck manual indicates that after the first 15 minutes this should be done, then every 25 hours thereafter. I pumped the handle 10 times for each spindle (the rubber plugs on the 2 outside spindles were a pain to remove) then I reached under the deck to feel for grease. I couldn't feel any, so I pumped in more grease on one of the spindles.

To make a long story short, the spindle was full and the grease was coming out from what looked like the middle of the pulley. I discovered this when I took the cover that surrounds the pulley off. Needless to say, I had a great mess to clean up. I got as much grease out as I could, then I started up the deck and more grease spun out and I cleaned that up too. I took the cover off the other outside pulley and that looked fine as did the middle pulley.

Is the middle of the pulley the standard place for the grease to squeeze out when it's full?

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Funny, the same thing happend on my 60" MMM. The main nut that holds the spindle together was loose..not a lot, but managed to tighten it a third of a turn. The manual indicates to grease the bearing until grease begins to exit out the top under the pulley. Of course being the maintenance kind of guy I am, I removed the covers so I could see. Sure enough, grease began to exit out the top. That was three years ago and no problems since.