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

Hello All

I have a 2005-06' 926dle with the new chute rotation controll . The chute exhibits some strange behaviour. If you move the controll quickly left to right or vice/v,  there may be some backlash of the chute. By this I mean the chute has not locked into position properly. It may lock, but not where you want it to. Chutes gone wild. I took the chute gear assembly apart and it seemed to have to much play between the Chute Gear and the Locking Chute Gear at certain positions. On my unit the problem was worse on the left side. This design, as is, has a very narrow operating tolerance.  I replaced the two washers behind the chute gear (spacers to me)  with a slightly thicker nylon washer and now it operates as it was intended too. I am sure this will vary from unit to unit.  I think Ariens is going to get some calls on this. I don't mind fixing this myself, actually it  was kinda fun to figure it out and get it to work properly. YMMV.  When I was all done perfecting this setup I measured the chute rotation to be aprox. 210 degrees. With a different Chute Gear this could easily be more.

John

jubol wrote:
Sir, can you explain how being a former AF maintenance officer has anything to do with snow blowers?  The organization that brought the US taxpayer the B1 bomber  doesn't seem particularly pertinant to the discussion.

Ariens has sold over two million snow blowers, so someone, somewhere is going to complain about something. You don't have to look too far to see many, many positive references to Ariens units, including machines that are almost 40 years old. I have one that's 35 years old, and was able last summer to purchase all the parts I needed at the local dealer to rstore it completely.

Ariens also has an engineer who monitors this board and answers maintenance questions. He's not a salesperson and seldom if ever even posts in a thread by a prospective buyer unless there has been some factual innacuracy.

I certainly don't see anyone from Husquavarna/Electrolux/ posting here in support of their products. And the fact that their most powerful machines have 12" augers and impellers certainly doesn't impress most folks in New England, where Ariens probably outsells Huskie 10:1.

Now that you're hanging out on this forum exclusively, you can fill us in?

I think it all depends on where you buy the unit from.  The one from my dealer works great with the new chute control.  It works just fine even when you want fine adjustments.  At first I didn't think it was locking into position, but it was simply that it did it so smoothly that I didn't notice it lock unless it was all the way right or left, and when the engine is one you will never notice it.  I can see where the super fast aim can help though, i have accendtly aimed where I shouldn't with past blowers and quickly moving it away from that area was needed but I had to crank.

Now it isn't w/o flaws as this is more complicated but then again all the companies seem to be makeing complicated controls.  Mine works great and I'm sure more often than not when bought from a dealer these are correct.