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I'm new to both this forum & owning a yard tractor. I purchased a used Craftsman 944.601280, 24 hp Kohler, 46" mower with 80 hours on the meter. I am in the process of doing all the maintenance scheduled in the manual. Today I removed the mower deck in order to grease the indicated spots that the manual shows but I can't find any grease fittings.
Any help sure would be appreciated.

Most Craftsman mowers DONOT have grease fitting on the spindle shafts or deck.

Look on top of the spindle where the pulley is. Should be right there on top in the center of the pulley where the nut is holding the pulley on.

Carscw said:

Look on top of the spindle where the pulley is. Should be right there on top in the center of the pulley where the nut is holding the pulley on.

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Thanks for the advice. To Carscrw the only thing I found on top of the spindle is a small hole in the end of the bolt. Is this meant to have a grease fitting inserted? Other than that I turned that deck inside out with no other sign of anything resembling a grease fitting. On the positive side, I now have the cleanest mower deck in Canada.

Wayne.MacLean said:

Thanks for the advice. To Carscrw the only thing I found on top of the spindle is a small hole in the end of the bolt. Is this meant to have a grease fitting inserted? Other than that I turned that deck inside out with no other sign of anything resembling a grease fitting. On the positive side, I now have the cleanest mower deck in Canada.

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Yes the hole is for a fitting.

Wayne.MacLean said:

I'm new to both this forum & owning a yard tractor. I purchased a used Craftsman 944.601280, 24 hp Kohler, 46" mower with 80 hours on the meter. I am in the process of doing all the maintenance scheduled in the manual. Today I removed the mower deck in order to grease the indicated spots that the manual shows but I can't find any grease fittings.
Any help sure would be appreciated.

Click to expand...

If it is the same as my mower the zerk fittings are on top , I don't have to take the mower off,.
PGT 9,000 craftsman tractor with 54 " mower

A lot od atermarket spindles no longer have grease nipples fitted ( EPA stikes again ),
So have a little feel to see if there is a thread in there or if the nipple had broken off ( very common ).
Apparently some people do not clean off the excess grease which then falls onto the lawn, makes its way into the water and causes massive enviromential problems ( don't think so ) so some mowers no longer have nipples & you have to dissasemble spindles to grease.
Most spindle bearings are sealed balls to boot which do nit need greasing so all a spindle shaft full of grease does is prevent water gettng in aa there is no space left for it.
Tappered rollers are a different storey but you will not find them in anything with Craftsman on it.

Wayne, My Craftsman DYT 4000 Intek 2004 has grease fittings on the three pulleys. It is a 48", 3 blader. The two outer zerks show through the cut-outs on the decktop. The middle one is hard to grease but can be done in place with a flex hand gun. The manual says grease 'em. Some on the forum say the grease never reaches the bearings and the zerks are for warm , fuzzy feelings. I do not know since I have not had them apart (no failures). It does seem strange to me that I never see a bit of grease as I have pumped 3-4 cylinders into the 3 over the years. Finally I know the theory of sealed ball bearings-nothing to do, but I also know many times I have gently pried off the plastic seals to reaveal dry balls/races and restored proper action by cleaning (try WD 40 spray), packing and snapping the seals back in place (vacuum cleaner roller. drills, alternators, generators etc.) Try to see if the holes are threaded and buy an assortment of zerks-careful , some are metric. BTW it is a stretch for the EPA to fear a drop of grease, isn't it????

Edit. Haven't I seen grease gun adaptors with needle tubes to sneak grease past the ball bearing seals?