Mower deck wheel zerk fittings?

[pfrederi 17,114]

I have bought several WH /Toro deck wheels over the years...None have the stop ball in the Zerk fitting.  You hit them with the grease gun and when you remove it they squirt out a thin stream of grease.  Any idea why WH decided the stop balls were unnecessary??  I thought about replacing teh fittings with ones with stop balls but they are some sort of press fit and i not sure if there is enough metal in the wheel to thread in a proper fitting.

[953 nut 51,421]

    nope!

[tunahead72 2,332]

Thanks for asking about this, Paul.  I never noticed the lack of stop balls, and just always thought I was doing something wrong.  I hope there's actually a logical reason behind it.

 

Do aftermarket wheels have the same "feature"?  Or do they even have grease fittings at all?

[Jerry77 1,218]

Looked up wikipedia - had this to say: Grease fittings are permanently installed by either a (taper) thread or straight push-fit ('hammer in') arrangement, leaving a nipple connection that a grease gun attaches to. The pressure supplied by the grease gun forces a small captive bearing ball in the fitting to move back against the force of its retaining spring. The arrangement is thus essentially a valve that opens under pressure to allow lubricant to pass through a channel and be forced into the voids of the bearing. When the pressure ceases, the ball returns to its closed position. The ball excludes dirt and functions as a check valve to prevent grease escaping back out of the fitting. The ball is almost flush with the surface of the fitting so that it can be wiped clean to reduce the amount of debris carried with the grease into the bearing.    Makes sense... never thought about it before.. probably was done to save money..

Edited June 4, 2017 by Jerry77
clarification

[N3PUY 1,031]

I use an oil can to lube the deck wheels. Just push the spout against the fitting and pump in a little oil.

[squonk 38,826]

I've never had that issue Paul. I've had to use a cordless grease gun and pump like crazy to fill the inside of the wheel so it actually stops squeaking but never had grease shoot out.

[oldlineman 1,450]

Mine does the same thing was going to replace with new ones but they don't look replaceable. DONO

[Tankman 3,515]

I've replaced numerous zerk fittings on my Horses.  All were 1/4"-28 taper thread fittings.

Most were replaced just "because", preventative maintenance.

 

The front axle pivot grease fitting is the one I've found broken fairly often. Use caution when jacking up the front end of any Horse.

I usually use a board on my floor jack, easily jack up the front end.

An easy out usually removes the remaining part easily.

[jeff lary 171]

my 37" deck does the same thing 2 pumps in 3 pumps out. I pump in one or two times then spin the wheel some with the hose still attached to the fitting. I think that helps keep a fraction more grease inside.

[doc724 924]

Hmmm, I have the same problem and I use aftermarket wheels.  I could never understand why it happened only on the wheels and never on any of the other zerks on the machine.   Since most zerks have a ball in them I assumed these did too, but frankly I never looked all that carefully.  I assumed that there was a tiny spring under the ball that was supposed to reseat the ball after greasing.  I surmised some dirt got into the fitting and prevented the ball from reseating.  I have given up trying to find a root cause, I just keep a rag close by to pick up the inevitable mess.

[jeff lary 171]

My original and my after market fittings do the same thing. Yes there is a spring below the ball and if there is enough pressure behind the ball and you are putting heat to it trying to get grease in ...it can blow the ball out and through a window ! We had a shiv on a plow truck we had to heat up one time yea big surprise when the ball went " POW" sounded like a .22 short. Then the glass fell out of a window 10 feet away. So the lesson is if you know there maybe pressure behind the ball and you choose to heat it up ( w/ Oxy/Acetylene ) don't stand in front of it.