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

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.