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

For all you recent Ariens owners, you may want to check all your fittings, caps and other essentials to make sure they are torqed down properly.  I bought mine last winter from a small local dealer who assured me it is better to buy from him than HD.  I paid a little more for this.  We didn't get much snow last year so I only got to use it two or three times last season.  This summer I noticed it was leaking oil.  The dealer replaced the drain tube because the cap had been cross threaded.  I don't think the dealer would have removed and replaced this durring assembly, likely it was installed at the factory.  It had only been used twice this season prior to today when I attempted to clear a 12" snow.  After one pass I noticed a ton of oil all over the side of the unit.  It was actually also spitting out of the muffler but I couldn't tell where the primary source was.  After I shut it down and looked it over I found that one of the oil fill caps on the block (not the fill tube/dipstick) was missing.  Apparently with that cap off it created a pressure problem that somehow allowed it to put oil through the muffler.  Upon inspection I found the other fill cap to be loose.  The dealer didn't remove or replace either of these caps because they used the fill/dipstick tube.  I grabbed a wrench and started checking bolts and found several that were not torqued down, also not likely items the dealer had anything to do with.