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

Hey Bill

Have you ever thought about using a metal chute from an older machine? I know it's not an original idea, but that would solve the problem. Last winter I repowered an old Bolens machine, and the new engine was much larger than the one it replaced. The chute auger wouldn't work anymore, so I cut off the rod, tightened down the chute bolts and packed it with grease. Now I have to manually turn it, but it works fine. I doubt there's any way to reinforce a plastic chute.

I don't know what else you could short of fabricating one yourself out of metal.

John

Hey John

Thanks for the suggestion! I tried using some band iron where the bolts would screw in, but that did not help. I will try your advice, I will look for a older snowblower with a metal chute. You would think Sears would fix this problem, but by not fixing it they are sure of people buying new chutes every couple of years. John, thanks for the help    Bill

I'm hoping to revisit this great question. I notice it is a few years old but am having same problem and wondering if anyone knows of after market chutes available for this Craftsman Model  536.887992. l will check local repair outlets for used chute but would be nice if an after market one was available that is designed for the job. I anyone has any suggestions I would very much like to hear them. Many thanks...

Take your plastic chute off and bring it to a sheet metal shop.  Have them look at it and see what it would cost for them to fabricate one for you.  Try a few shops for comparison purposes.  You might be pleasantly surprised to find a shop that will build you one for a reasonable price.  Especially now with people looking for work.

I have a cheaper solution. Buy straight brackets in the area of 3/4" X 4" with predrilled holes(used in wood work projects). Any hardware store has them. Mount them verticaly and on the inside of chute so that the lowest hole is inline with hole going thru the chute. Then use one or two of the other holes to fasten the plastic of the chute to the bracket.I would recomend screws washers and nuts and not rivots. Also the nut should be on the outside of chute.This way you have it almost all flush from the inside. With this set up when you snow blow all the pressure is on the metal bracket and not anymore the plastic.

Allan

Why not try to get some duct tubing and slide it over the plastic to reinforce it?  Might work :)

Maybe after, wrap the whole thing with duck tape, take a picture of it with Red Green, send it to Craftsman. LOL
Johnny boy up North has an idea, I think I'm going to look for a older long metal chute and adapt it to do the job.
Thanks all...

I too have this problem! My thought is that the company that makes this for Sears makes many other models and I'm sure some with metal chutes. Is there any way to find out if any particular model has a chute could be adapted to fit this one. Maybe few extra bucks but should be a one time purchase. Dave...

Any updates on this? How is everyones craftsman doing?

The machine was made by murray now owned by Briggs part number 1502118E701MA is all metal and will fit over $100.00 though.

AJ

If you have a Township / County Recycling depot, see if you could get lucky and find a chute off of an abandoned machine. Scrap metal recyclers could be a source of "found gold". Call around to some local commercial electrical installers, maybe they might have a piece of 4 or 6 inch conduit that you could do something with.

These are dirt cheap ways to get you out of a jam before the season hits.

Its just a thought.

Somethings Not Right if you need even a second plastic chute.  My MTD-Craftsman Model 247.885690 (9 HP 26" Track Drive) purchased 10-19-96 in an actual Sears-Roebuck store before K-Mart absorbed them, still had, in excellent condition, its original plastic discharge chute when I gave the machine away last week.

Plastic chutes generally work just fine and are made of heavy guage, very durable polymers. If you have already gone through four of them you really should be looking at why it is happening rather then trying to redesign the unit. Quite honestly it sounds like  you are throwing rocks.

One of the biggest miconceptions is that plastic chutes are associated with a cheaper product line and all manufacturers, even the best of the besties are using plastic somewhere to drive down product costs.

Polymers from an engineering standpoint also act as vibration and stress dampeners. Realize that the hardware and support mechanisims that were designed for a plastic chute may not work very well when it is retrofitted with with a metal one. The differences between weight ,coefficients, and stress factors may just cause you more agrivation than the project is worth.

Bite the bullet, replace the plastic chute, and sell the snowblower on craigs list or your local peddlers paper.

Then buy one that was designed for a metal chute.

In the end you will be one happy Snowman

Starwarrior

BillG, Estam, dave48060:

 

You guys have posted that you have chute problems but never gave specifics.  What exactly is wrong?  BillG why did you have to replace so many chutes?  Four chutes in six years is hard to imagine. 

 

Over the years I’ve only seen one plastic chute that was messed up.  The person stored the blower with something heavy laying on the chute and it developed a bend or set so leaning slightly.  It tossed fine though. 

I have had to replace several plastic chutes. The issue with them is where the chute pivots. When it is cold, and the snow is crunchy the chute top of the chute rips at the the bottem edge of the deflector.

I go through at least one a year. Purchasing this machine was a mistake for where I live, it will do fine if all you get is six or so inches.  When the snow piles up at two to three inche an hour this machine is out of its element.

I am going to but another machine with a metal chute. I do not care what you call it plastic, composite , or polymer it is a fact thay a brittle when subjected to extreme cold. By the way if these issues were operator error craftsman would not have issues keeping up with demend for the replacement part.

That is my two cents, With that said I believe I will go back to old faithfull Ariens. I am also considering Honda.

Does any one have any other suggestions, if you have never seen 30 inches over night save your comments please. 

Is it possible for you to get several big flat washers and put around the bolts where the chute pivots?

Or get some flat stock and bolt it to the top of the chute and bolt the pivot on that.

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.