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

Have a 10 year old Toro 824.. Has been a trouble free machine.. Mostly just oil changes and occassional belt tightening, oiling etc.. 

Today did the whole driveway and noticed the last pass I was not throwing snow like normal.  Determined that auger was not turning.  Impeller yes auger no.  Seemed the auger was slightly scraping the asphalt.  Raised it up using the guides it is free and can rotate by hand but while (by hand) I can turn the shaft from the impeller the auger is not driven?

I assume there is a gear inside the aluminum housing that may be bad?  Any assistance appreciated.  Is it replaceable by a not real handy mechanic?!

Well the journey continues....

Pulled it all apart.  Shear bolts fine..  Oil low but clear of any shavings... Gears both worm and helical look fine.  Reassembled (tough getting the 4 bolts holding the bearings/flanges and thus position the augur shaft to the frame by hand) and found I had missed one of the spacer/washers that go into the gear case assy on the auger shaft ) @#$@$$.  Now pulling it all back apart.

As I described above not real handy but I've seemed to manage.  The key looked fine (small half disk that fits into groove on augur shaft).  At this point the only thing I can think of is the helical gear somehow moved off the key and was spinning free and not engaging the worm gear.  Although I really don't see how that could happen.  Admit I am puzzled but until I put it back together again I won't know if I've actually got it licked.  Question.  When reassembled should I be able to spin the augur (and thus impeller) by hand? 

The gear has it's key so fixed in one direction. It can't move in the other without breaking the auger gear case. The worm can't ride up over the gear unless it breaks the gear case. The condition of the auger assembly is the same as at the start.

The screw-hh's appear to be good. You would have taken them out to slip off the auger blades from the gear shaft so they are out as a suspect.

The impeller is mated to the drive shaft. Any impeller movement should move the auger blades. It won't be immediate. Some impellers move the auger blades in an 16th of a turn, other in almost 3/4'ers of a turn.

Moving the auger blades to make the impeller spin is hard. (But that can't happen anyway as your spin freely).

Moving the auger drive pully to drive everything is easier if the belt is not tight. You can take off the belt if there's belt resistance and move the auger drive pulley by hand. Make a pencil mark on the augers and then give the pulley a 10 full turns and see if the pencil mark moved.

There might be some friction around. You could wedge the blades with a board and see what that does to turning the pulley. If the pulley turns and the auger blades wedged you still have an issue. If you can't move the pulley then putting the belt on and firing up the system should move the auger blades. If not then the belt is slipping on it's v-pulley and you can see that with the belt cover off.

By the way, I put the auger gear case back in my snowblower today and it worked fine. I added a new auger drive belt. My problem was a bogus observation which I can't explain. As I explained in the other post I thought I saw the augers standing still while the impeller turned rapidly (a number of times).

I'm very interested to hear what happens with your snowblower. From the information you've given nothing was found defective and although the auger section disassembled and reassembled nothing was changed so the problem should still be there. There are no new parts other than grease.

As I look outside her in Massachusetts it's snowing and although I have to admit the coming snow was worrisome w/ a loooong driveway. I just finished up reassembling the machine.. Refit the key, realigned the gears bolted all back together, filled it with gear oil. and..................

It works!  I still don't know what happened.  As I recall disassembling the gear box I do remember the key falling from the bottom of the assy.  I may have dislodged it when I was pulling it apart but that is all I can imagine as to the problem.

Anyway as a really poor mechanic I am happy I took the plunge and repaired (cross fingers) it myself.  My thanks to all on this board for your help and suggestions.