Broken zerk fitting on deck spindle
 

I have a 44A deck and one of the zerk fittings on an outside spindle is broken. It appears to be pressed in (and is not listed separate on the fiche). I found a thread on busted zerks in the front end saying to to remove the sleeve and pound them in. If I pound it in, I am not sure I will be able to recover the broken peice out of the spindle (I have never been inside the spindle assy)
Thanks

Drill it out, tap the hole and put a threaded one in.

What is the best way to avoid getting metal shavings down in the hole when you do this? Any tricks?

What's always worked for me is coating the drill bit in grease then doing a revolution or two at a time. The shavings have always stuck to the drill bit/grease for me.

:IH Trusted Hand:

Just my 2 cents but I would remove the shaft, drill out the broken zerk tap it for a screw in zerk, pump some grease through it then reassemble it. One little chip will trash a bearing.

so are you saying you would press off the bearings? I tore it down to the spindle/bearings. tomorrow I can get it on a press, but I was debating if I wanted to try pressing them off. The bearings feel OK, but look really rough and there was a lot of rust in the cup

If the bearings do NOT have a perfect finish on the surface, they are junk. Any imperfection will cause failure. They are a precision component.

They're junk.

I see now that they are not serviceable. Time to :beatdeadhorse:. Tomorrow I am going to drill out the broken zerk tap it and hopefully get a new fitting in. Then blast everything else grease it all and reassemble and see what happens. This is a camp mower, maybe I can get a season or 2 out of it
thanks for the help