transmission grease

[mmedley]

hey guys,

i bought a 36" exmark to mow my lawn bought it used for 500.00 lawn mower was in great shape. i just gave it a tune up.......fresh plug, new air filter, fuel filter, oil,greased most of the mower and got new blades on the way. since i did not by it new i did not get an owners manual, so i searched for one online and found one and it was saying that you need to change the grease in the transmission once a year. is this hard to do? should i attempt this or take it to a shop.....i am pretty handy but i do not want to risk messing something up in the transmission......is this really necessary?

[jkason]

If you bought this thing from a commercial guy, have the shop do it.
While it's apart, have them check all the internal parts for wear and replace the seals (small, square-cut o-rings).
Make sure they use the correct grease for the transmission, and not the lithium grease which everyone has.

If everything is ok, you should be set for at least 5 years before you need to do anything to it again (if it's used for your personal lawn only).

The reason they say to change it yearly, is becuase the commercial guys use these thing 8 hours (or more) a day, and the grease weeps out of the cases after a while.