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.  

You could also buy some rubber caps used to plug vacuum ports on auto carbs and put them over the fittings if you are that worried.