Gad zerks!

[prs]

Follow-up:

Today I took a bit of time to investigate the reason for the stubborn zerk to be, well, so stubborn. With intention of disassembling the joint and cleaning it before re-greasing, my first step was to try the gun on that fitting again. It took grease this time like it should and old grease exited around both ends of the ball joint until new grease replaced it. I guess the grease I finally was able to force into there softened the jamb.

prs

 

[prs]

Follow-up:

Today I took a bit of time to investigate the reason for the stubborn zerk to be, well, so stubborn. With intention of disassembling the joint and cleaning it before re-greasing, my first step was to try the gun on that fitting again. It took grease this time like it should and old grease exited around both ends of the ball joint until new grease replaced it. I guess the grease I finally was able to force into there softened the jamb.

prs

 

[John Joseph McVeigh]

I greased the Ventrac and checked everything out. I tried to figure out a way to access the drive shaft zerks from the right, but although Houdini might have success, my mitts are too large to fit in that way. But, from the left it is not difficult. I used the start motor to "bump" the shaft around so that the rear zerk was straight up; easy peasy. The front one was hidden by the bottom of the radiator, but we know it is aligned with the rear one, so I bumped the shaft around again to get them pointing straight down. Then from the left side the grease hose dives down and back up to the front zerk, not easy in regard to getting to hose end onto the zerk, but doable.


Continuing. I had a couple of stubborn zerk fittings on the rear rollers of the contour mower, but they did take the grease. [...]

prs

Thank you very, very much for the suggestions with regard to the drive-shaft zerks.... rear oriented to the top, then the front oriented to the left, using the rear zerk as a visual guide. It is much easier to do it the way that you suggested than the way that the Owner's Manual specifies.

I found it much easier to use my Sears Remote Starter Switch (about 33 years old now) to bump the crankshaft than it was to use the key switch. Once I got the zerks within striking distance, I used a pry bar in the yoke of the rear U-joint to get the zerks oriented exactly the way that I wanted them.

As regards the zerks on the rear roller of the mower deck, I found it impossible to get a fitting on the left zerk on my MC600 rear-discharge mower deck. I ended up swapping it out for a right-angle zerk.

Thanks again for the great tips!

JJM