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

... when you bend down to operate the axle-mounted lock pin at the left wheel, on the '05 and older models. This has really bothered me, and the new models no longer have this problem due to the new axle design and remote control system.

My fix was to fabricate a small deflector from a 3" x 3" piece of thin stainless steel. I carefully bent it into an "S" shape in my bench vise and pop-rivited it to 2 existing holes in the muffler face - the two holes are the outer ones closest to the rear of the thrower. I drilled the holes oversized and installed the deflector with 3/16 inch stainless pop rivets. These are very hard to find, but a bolt or boat supply company (like West Marine) will have them at about US$1 each.  Plain steel or aluminum rivets will not hold up in this environment - the heat and vibration will loosen and corrode them severely in a couple of winters. The steel should be available in the scrap bin of any metal fabrication shop.

I made sure the deflector did not stick out to the left beyond 1 inch, so that the black muffler heat shield would still fit correctly.

The mod works GREAT! No hot carbon monoxide blasted into the eyes and lungs. The exhaust stream is broken up rather than a concentrated stream, and most of it exits straight forward and up, with a little bit going down. I have not thrown snow yet, but I don't see how the mod can have any measureable impact on engine performance.

I highly recommend this mod if you own an older DLE.

John Davies

Hi,

If anyone buys that deflector for their Ariens 926, would you please post a Pic.

I have a 9HP  OHV Tec engine on a husky and want to see if the deflector would work on my blower or other blowers.

                                                Thanks

                                                                    Fred