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Terry C -- Do I understand correctly that your mower's gears are under an unsealed metal protective cover? A cover that might keep your canary out of the gears but will let dusty air in? Are you SURE that those gears need grease? Are they both solid metal, or is one or both plastic, rawhide, fiber, or something else that will run dry? Can you dry lube them with graphite, moly-disulphide, or something similar? If you are ABSOLUTELY SURE that the gears need grease, can you convert the mower to a belt drive? Greasing gears will make any piece of grit that gets inside the housing stick to the gears, where it and its gritty friends will chew away on the gears until they are worn to nubbins. If you're absolutely determined to grease the gears, maybe you can oil them instead? The oil won't stay on the gears nearly as long as grease will, and although any grit inside the housing will be magic-netically attracted to the oil, most of the grit will run off the gears when the oil runs off. Then you can squirt on some fresh oil and start the process all over. Still want to use grease? Well, then you can probably get by with almost any "all purpose" automotive grease. Think in terms of a National Lubricating Grease Institute (NLGI) #2 grease meeting the NLGI specifications for chassis and wheel bearing grease (a "NLGI GC-LB" rating), and although I don't usually suggest using a grease with lubricating solids such as graphite, moly-disulphide, or zinc oxinde, those lubricating solids might be justified here. I's suggest that you clean the gears thoroughly, perhaps with spray-can "electric motor cleaner" or "brake parts cleaner", and then apply a light coating of the grease to the teeth of all gears with a short-and-stiff-stiff-bristle brush. Pick out the bristles that jump out of the brush onto the gears, install the metal cover, and then go try out the machine. Remember to reclean and regrease the gears every so often. John
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