In my opinion, Deere didnt sell any of these gearcases in all the years of the 9600s and 9610s, so why not put grease in it that will eventually break down or seap to dangerous levels causing complete failure. Now theyll sell gearcases, problem solved. Im sure that Deere has little squeaky book worm engineers whos sole job is to reengineer parts to have only so much life. How else would they sell so many parts. I change my stinkin distribution auger bearings every season,,,,,, all of them, and then the shaft every two, cause they are dinky undersized crap, BUT they sell tons of them. How about augers with friggin 12 gauge flighting, What the heck is that about, oohh I forgot I wouldnt be buying a new one at over 200 bucks a pop every season either. I could go on and on about this one. lets just say Im considering buying out an old machinest friend of mine, he wants me to have his mill, lathe, and all tooling,,, I could make parts for my machines the way they were meant to be or the way they were first designed, then redesigned to fail for replacement.