Grease Nipple

[Ronni]

I have a LX178 and one of the grease nipples that lubricate the bearings on the cutting deck is missing. Are these nipples a press fit as opposed to threaded and it so does anyone know the size please?

These grease fittings are almost always threaded. You can take one of your other spindle grease fittings out and use it for sizing for the replacement one at an auto parts store.

 

[Scrubcadet10]

because water flows upwards.....

 

[StarTech]

because water flows upwards.....

Sure can especially when changing diapers..

 

[bertsmobile1]

They're not really grease nipples. They're just vents. If you look carefully, you'll see that the check valve is missing. There's only a hole going all the way through.

When you think about it, it makes sense. The bearings are sealed and can't be greased.

I talked to an engineer who worked for a major manufacturer years ago about why they do this. He told me that when they went to sealed bearings, they eliminated the grease fittings. The customers and dealers had a hissy about how to grease the deck bearings. They explained that it was no longer necessary but fell on deaf ears. So they installed these vents to allow any water that go into the sleeve to vent out. (At least that was the theory). They don't recommend pumping grease into this fitting as it will eventually dry out and attract water.

As for your condition, you need to close the opening to prevent water or dirt from entering.

And that is the difference between quality mores and the throw away junk that is killing the planet and the population.
Quality mowers have greasable spindlel that last for thousands of hours
Junk ones use sealed bearings that dry out quickly , allow water to get in and fall apart .
OTOH I do make a nice amount of money from changing sealed bearings very regularly

 

[Stokdgs]

Just think I currently wear -300 / -350 lenes myself. I was up to a -600 at one time. I still cant them to make a pair of reading glasses that will work. I have to wear two pair to see up close or just go without which I then tend to lose my glasses and have find the back up pair just so I find the good ones.

StarTech - Have you ever tried to see if you can use monovision soft contact lenses??
I have been using them for years and they absolutely remove the need to go find reader glasses for me.
What I have is - my left dominant eye has a 20/20 corrected lens, my right eye has a certain amount Less from 20/20 that is found when getting your eyes tested, that will be less than your dominant eye, but this somehow makes your brain adjust my eyesight, so I can now see clearly, all those little letters, numbers, etc., that I needed to go find the Readers for..
One pair of contacts..No more Readers... I can see everything small again..
Yes, I do not have 20/20 corrected any longer to have this monovision..
Yes,I have another set of contact lenses for the right eye that are stronger, so I can have 20/20 like when I am wanting to see really good when driving, etc., But then, I will need to go find the Readers to see something really tiny..
My eye lenses just do not want to focus on their own as they used to when we were all kids...
Monovision fixes all of this for me just great..
And yes I have astigmatism in both eyes and that is not an issue for monovision for me..

 

[StarTech]

Contacts were making my vision worst. I had gone from the -300's to -600's so I quit them about 20 yrs ago and my eyesight is now back in the low -300's.

Yes I had much better range with the contacts and a lot less hassles but I just could allow them to make my overall sight worst even through they corrected it.The lens were actually damaging my eyes. Wish they weren't.

The solution I found that works for me is just wear a second pair of 1.25 over my current prescription lenses when working with the computer or doing a lot close work.

 

[enigma-2]

Quality mowers have greasable spindlel that last for thousands of hours
Junk ones use sealed bearings that dry out quickly , allow water to get in and fall apart .

You sound exactly like the dealers the Simplicity engineer was talking about.
The bearings are sealed.

Greasing the spindles does nothing to get grease into the bearings. The only benefit is to coat the steel against rusting (which it does not).

There is absolutely no benefit to pumping grease into the inside of a spindle. None. The bearings are sealed.

As far as water flowing upwards, its water vapor. Evaporation. Whether open or not makes no difference. The spindles are going to rust. But no grease will make its way into the sealed bearing. (Otherwise their not sealed).

 

[StarTech]

You sound exactly like the dealers the Simplicity engineer was talking about.
The bearings are sealed.

Greasing the spindles does nothing to get grease into the bearings. The only benefit is to coat the steel against rusting (which it does not).

There is absolutely no benefit to pumping grease into the inside of a spindle. None. The bearings are sealed.

As far as water flowing upwards, its water vapor. Evaporation. Whether open or not makes no difference. The spindles are going to rust. But no grease will make its way into the sealed bearing. (Otherwise their not sealed).

Well I differ on this for the ones I rebuild the bearings have the inner seals removed so they get get greased. Even new spindles that are greaseable I remove the inner seals before installation.But yes yo just install then straight as they come then most times lately they are using 2RS bearings as OEM are too cheap to order single sided sealed bearings.

On top that with spindles using tapered bearing are used they definitely get greased they have no seals other than the ones installed in the spindle housings.

 

[bertsmobile1]

You sound exactly like the dealers the Simplicity engineer was talking about.
The bearings are sealed.

Greasing the spindles does nothing to get grease into the bearings. The only benefit is to coat the steel against rusting (which it does not).

There is absolutely no benefit to pumping grease into the inside of a spindle. None. The bearings are sealed.

As far as water flowing upwards, its water vapor. Evaporation. Whether open or not makes no difference. The spindles are going to rust. But no grease will make its way into the sealed bearing. (Otherwise their not sealed).

What was the second line of my reply ?

Quality mowers have greasable spindles that last for thousands of hours

So old spindles where there are no grease nipples fitted go in with a light coating of grease on them to surpress rust which it actually does fairly well if the owner does not use the deck wash system.
New housings get grease nipples put in them and like Star the inner seals get pulled and where I have one that fits a metal shielded bearing ( Z ) goes in the top so I can keep the housing fully packed with grease and the air has somewhere to escape
These housings never ever come back for bearing replacement unless the owner runs the blades down till they become unbalanced or bends the blades with the same result.

There is only 2 reasons for fitting a 2rs in spindles
1) to cut costs while a plain & sealed bearings are the same price in bulk , you eliminate a complete step ( fitting the nipple ) , 3 machining events ( seals & nipple hole ) plus 3 parts ( 2 seals & a nipple ) and also save on grease .
2) EPA rules in California ( and some other states ) that prohibit grease nipples due to the chance of grease getting into the environment .
Just about every commercial mower comes with greasable spindle bearings.
And as for the service life of sealed bearings I would note that Great Dane who made probably one of the best ZTR ranges used a heavy 6300 series sealed bearings in their spindles and the routine service interval says to change them annually .
JD use an identical spindle housing with greasable bearings & grease seal ( you can swap them over ) but their spindle bearing replacement schedule is 5 years or sooner if required .

The landlord has 4 x 2000 series Cub Cadets ( all from the 90's) which he mows pasture , orchards , scrub around the creeks & the house yard with.
The paddock mowers go through around 3 sets of blades a year to give you an idea of the useage and 3 of these are still running the original tapered roller bearings

 

[StarTech]

Those Cubs should be getting close to having those tapers replaced as the cup are probably worn a bit now and developing up and down play.