Spindle bearings have never taken grease on LA 100 series deck

dirt ditch · May 1, 2011

My LA165 is 3 years old with 44 hrs on the meter. Never had a problem with it, but ever since I brought it home from the dealer none of the 3 spindles on the 48" deck will take grease. There is no play in any of the bearings so I just keep mowing with it. So I am just wondering if anyone else has this problem or if it is a problem at all.

k0ua · May 1, 2011

dirt ditch said:
My LA165 is 3 years old with 44 hrs on the meter. Never had a problem with it, but ever since I brought it home from the dealer none of the 3 spindles on the 48" deck will take grease. There is no play in any of the bearings so I just keep mowing with it. So I am just wondering if anyone else has this problem or if it is a problem at all.

Mine on a La135 were "difficult" also. take an ice pick, (or I used the tip of my pocket knife) and push on the check balls on the zerks, and make sure they are free, and then I had to push hard on the tip of the grease gun to make sure it did not just flow around the zerk, but I was able to make the spindle zerks to finally take some grease. It seemed like the check balls were hard to move, and I had to put my other hand on the back side of the spindle to brace myself to be able to push hard on the zerk to keep the grease from leaking around the zerk and go into the zerk. Anyway that was my experience.

James K0UA

SandburRanch · May 1, 2011

dirt ditch said:
My LA165 is 3 years old with 44 hrs on the meter. Never had a problem with it, but ever since I brought it home from the dealer none of the 3 spindles on the 48" deck will take grease. There is no play in any of the bearings so I just keep mowing with it. So I am just wondering if anyone else has this problem or if it is a problem at all.

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Don't waste your time on them. The bearings inside are sealed and weren't intended to be greased. The zerks are there for show and tell because that's what the competition has. All of those being made in China now have zerks.

k0ua · May 1, 2011

SandburRanch said:
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Don't waste your time on them. The bearings inside are sealed and weren't intended to be greased. The zerks are there for show and tell because that's what the competition has. All of those being made in China now have zerks.

So is that why they are hard to get to, and "difficult" to get to take grease? I figured if it had a zerk then it needed grease, so I perservered and got it to take some. It was a pain tho.

James K0UA