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

This is my 4th plastic chute for my craftsman snowblower.  It is about 6 years old.  If a person  out there can make a metal chute for this snowblower,  he could become rich. If anyone has any ideas let me know  I have a 9 HP Craftsman snowblower.  Model # 536.887992   Thank You

Yes, My 2002 9 hp 29" blower Model No. 536.887990 has the same problem. The bolt hole at the base of the plastic chute ripped out years ago. I made a "frankenstein" repair by wrapping the chute exterior at the base with hardware cloth that I attached to the base bolts, then drilled holes about 1.5" above the base in the plastic chute and ran addt'l bolts through both the hardware cloth and the plastic chute. It's worked for a few years, but just ripped out. The plastic chutes are junk, they just don't stand up to snowfall in northern climes.There's a good reason some of the other brands use a metal chute. I guess I'll have to see if I can find a replacement metal chute though in the meantime I'll try another patch job, maybe with 6" single wall stove pipe band trimmed and wrapped around the chute exterior base...

I spoke with a customer service rep from craftsman today. They are working on a new design, their concern with a metal chute is rust. I replied by telling him people will deal with rust alot better than replacing the chute at $40 a wack every time it blows off. i did reinfoce this last chute. I did it by bending up a sheet of 18 gauge to fit the deflector, but it only worked until the whole chute blew off at the base where it rotates. They no longer distribute the replacement chute to the parts warehouse so I had to pay $48.80 to have one shipped instead of the $37.50 when you walk in and pick one up. We are going to get 1-3 tonight and agian tomorrow night, the up to a foot on friday. I went to buy a new machine this evening and I have turned into one of those fools who have missed the boat by an hour. Not happy.

I replaced the plastic chute on my Mastercraft MTD with a metal one from another machine (TTI?). Not because it was broken but the metal one had a cable operated deflector. The chute rotation mechanism was the same but the base diameter of the metal chute was a bit too big for my liking and flopped around a bit. So I cut out a small pie shaped wedge out of the ring, then gently convinced the two edges together and welded it up. After a bit of grinding on the weld, you can''t even see where it was and the fit looks OEM.

Cheers

I also had a craftsman with a plastic chute for 10+ years before giving it to my brother  recently with the chute still in near perfect condition.

Perhaps its the larger engine and accompanying force of the discharged snow in your machine as mine was only a 5 hp unit but the polymer chute worked perfectly well for me.

To follow up: I picked up a thin metal tie at Home Depot, drilled out holes to line up with my "frankenstein" reinforcement bolts as described in my earlier post, bolted it to the one side that ripped out, and it is working for now. The metal tie reinforces the plastic chute, bolted at the bottom end to one of the bolts of the chute base, and at the top end to one of my new bolts drilled through the plastic chute about 1.5" above the base. The metal tie was about 2" wide by about 12" long, predrilled with a number of small holes, I cut it in half. BTW, I installed the new hex head bolt through the chute with the head on the inside, a nylon lined lock nut on the outside, to avoid snow buildup, etc.

The bolt on the chute pivot is not working very well either, it eventually slips when blowing snow wetter than can be "broomed". I think I'll look for a couple of washers with teeth, or some other "repair" method.

I have access to a somewhat similar vintage Craftsman 5hp 24" snowblower as well, and the chute on that one is still in pretty good shape. There may be some merit to the comment above about the greater force of the larger snowblower.

I run two different blowers, both 8 HP, and have blown the top of the chute practically off on each machine, but instead of just buying a whole new chute, I put them on a piano hinge instead of the internal wire hinge that they come with. So far so good, been several storms and frozen over snow, and they are holding up great. My problems were from blowing chunks of ice.