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

Hi all new here and new to snow throwers, I Just purchased a new Poulan Pro 11hp 30' snow thrower and was clearing my sister in laws driveway when I ran over a buried 50 foot leed cord which wraped it self around the auger witch pulled out the left auger shaft from the bearing housing and snaped the shearing bolts on thats side. I put the shaft back into the bearing housing and replaced the shearing bolts .Now the question I looked at the auger in operation is the auger gear box suppost to wobble a little I am worried It did some damage to the shafts when she pulled out. she seems to run fine eats the snow fine no shacking at all. can anyone help having sleepless nights.

Thanks

Ron

Hi Ron:

The gear case wobbling is not a good sign.  It's only a matter of time before it will have negative effects on the auger system if the wobble is severe enough.  If it's not too noticeable, you might get by.  Both of my old Craftsman machines had a bit of a wobble in their gear cases.  The very first one I owned a 10 h.p. 32"  I had bought used and in so-so shape. ( Biggest mistake I ever made buying that thing.)  It had this tendency to work fine for 45 minutes.  No more, no less, then it would malfunction.   One of it's repertoire of failures was one end of the auger shaft jumping out of bushing seat,  not once, several times.  I'd notice it when the machine would start hammering and  jumping around.  It was actually comical to see. It seemed that after the first time the auger jumped out, it was never the same.  I assume the intake housing must have been permanently distorted moving the bushing seats too far apart for a proper fit.  .    The auger drive gear case moved around quite a bit on that one but never leaked and would work fine until the auger popped out again.   

In your case, something may have been pulled out of alignment when you had your encounter with the cord.  Look for leaks around the auger shaft seals on the gear case to see if there may have been damage there.  Make sure the side walls of the intake housing are as square as you can get them.  Does your gear case have a brace that secures it to the intake housing?  If it does, is the brace straight? Did you closely inspect the bushing seats on each side of the intake housing to see if they were not possibly shifted out of alignment?  Another place to inspect is the impeller shaft to see if it may have bent ever so slightly.   If everything looks good, I'd suggest you go to the dealership and see if they'll run a similar model for you so that you can observe the auger drive on it for comparison purposes.  A little wobble might just be the nature of the beast although, I have my doubts.

Sorry to hear of your misfortune and good luck to you.

  

Thanks Borat for your reply. I am heading out to take a closer look at it. What I am thinking of doing is removing all but 2 screws which I will losen from the left side auger plate to see its movement this will be done by hand not with it running gas off spark plug removed if there is a lot of movement  Then I will remove the shear pins and slip off the auger  and put a stright edge against the shaft to see if its bent and if its stright on to the impeller shaft. If all is stright it may well be the nature of the beast.

Ron

Good luck to you bud.  Let us know how it turns out. 

Well I took a good look at both the auger shaft and the impeller shaft they look stright but  the way the auger gear box moves that both the auger and impeller shaft are bent. The movment is up then down by about 1/4 inch or less then it also moves in a X motion by less then 1/4 inch. I can get the impeller shaft for 45.00 but I can not find the auger shaft at parts tree.I am also looking into having lowes replace it after all that auger should not have come out like that. will keep you informed.

Ron

                                                                                                                                                                                

Here is the Picture.

Ron

Well I called Lowes and they said bring it in and they will replace it. They put one aside for me . whew Iam a happy camper.

Thanks all for your help.

Ron

Good for you.  I'm surprised that the auger didn't just shred the cord and at the very most, bust a shear pin.  Keep an eye out for those hidden surprises under the snow.

I sure will . My sister in laws is a duplex and she rents the other side I guess that leed cord belonged to her tenet . As far as how rugged the auger housing is  I will have to give it a fair to poor rating it has weak auger housing side panels that flex to much allowing the auger shaft to pop out. When I started looking for a thrower I was hoping for a 11 HP Arien's or Toro but every thing in my area was sold out and the only place in a 50 mile distance was the Lowe's in Saratoga that had any and they only had the Pouland  9 & 11 hp models. Now to be fair the blower is build strong everywhere else Good size bolts holding it together large Dia. tubing for the handles Large Tires metal chute love the controls for the chute and auto steering. Being a Disabled marine it had all of the features I was looking for. I was trying to use my brother's 13 year old 8 HP Toro but when I got it home I found that the reverse was not working and it had no auto steering well my back did not like that so I made up my mind that I was not going to get off cheap and I was going to have to dig into my bank account. Well off to Lowe's and just in time to were getting 4 to 6 inch's tonight.

You All have a Great New Year

Ron

Well just got back from lowe's,They took it back and gave me a new one went smooth now I cant wait till day break and the 6" to 8" of snow. Now I may sleep better tonight LOL

Ron