Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

I was doing routine maintenance on my Platinum 24 which includes shooting some grease into the auger rake zerk fittngs.  A day or so later I see this string-like length of grease an inch or so long from the openings in both of the zerk fittings.  I thought these things all had a spring-loaded ball to seal them?  No problem, I say to myself...even though the machine is only a year old and under warranty I'd rather just replace the zerks myself and avoid the hassle....but NO...Ariens appears to have installed press-fit zerks on the rake assembly, so not such a simple replacement.  That's probably why they don't even call out for a separate part for the zerks on their exploded diagram.  It's listed as "rake, left hand with zerk". (Same for the right one)    To replace a $2 zerk fitting, do they expect you to replace the whole auger rake section?  I guess I will be using the warranty after all.