?? Maybe a brake squeal? Seems odd to me...

"I've been meaning to ask this for a long time...does anybody do any maintenance to the axle bearings where the axle passes through the deck on self-propelled mowers?" The Lawn Boy Self-propelled mowers that I have had had grease zerks and I greased them. I use motorcycle chain lube on all pivot, motion, points on my push and riding mowers where zerks are not present. Some use the "dirt" argument for not lubing chains of Dixon ZTRs for example, I use motorcycle chain lube and have replaced many chains AND sprockets from not being lubed on mowers I repaired. My chains and sprockets last "forever". Walt Conner

I have the washer(s) between the wheel and the axle. The left side of the axle (user facing the mower in mowing position) has a square end that fits into a slot at the end of the axle shaft. The axle will not turn at all with no wheels on the saft because the axle shaft is locked via the square on that end of the shaft. IF you force the axle out of that square slot, if turns just fine. The whole thing is that one side of the axle does not have the square slot - the other side does.

Thanks for that, some useful info there. Luckily, mine isn't that badly damaged - if it was I'd just be looking for a new axle! The diff unit is fine - even when the axle was locked I could still turn each wheel (the other wheel would move the other way), suggesting no problem with the diff. I suspect a bit of grit may have lodged in either the input or intermediate gears, locking it up. By the time I'd removed the axle, it was operating as it should be, suggesting whatever locked it had dislodged. Apart from a few small gouges here and there (probably from the bits of casing), everything seems in good order, no missing teeth or anything. It's a bit of a mystery - I'm not even sure at this stage whether whatever caused the hole came from inside or outside the casing. I do know, however, that this isn't a new hole - judging from the state of the metal (and the grass inside the casing!) it's been there for some time. I think my best bet here is to JB weld the hole, give everything a good clean, regrease it, put it back together, and hope for the best. If it still fails, I'm out an hour or so labour plus a tiny bit of JB. Worth a shot!