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

Hello.

This may be a stupid question, but I am having troubles figuring out how to remove the wheels. Nowhere in the manual does it tell you how to do so. It mentions removing the wheels in one section about friction disc replacement. This model has a differential and maybe it makes it harder, unsure.  On the outside of the wheel there is a lock clip that I can remove, but it doesn't seem to release anything. I am guessing its there to hold the wheel in place, but it doesn't give any slack with it gone.  Could it be rusted on? There seems to be quite a bit of rust coming from around the wheel, main reason why I would like to take it off, to grease it up a bit.  The is also a triangle type mount bolted on to the main box chasis (rake/bushing?), this mount has three bolts in it.  I tried to remove these nuts thinking maybe it needed to be loose for the wheel to come off and of couse all the bolts cracked off VERY easily.  So now I have no choice but to get the wheel off so that I can get the cracked off bolts out of that bracket (rake/bushing) and put new ones in. This machine is only one year old and its rusting like no tomorrow. I have taken care of most rust now and the wheels are last to take a look at.

Hope somebody can help me get the wheels off..

Cheers
Goofie Newfie

Hi Borat;

Yes, this wheel is on there good, welded would sum it up perfectly.  As for the dealer being busy, I would assume that your probably right, although I bought my machine this time last year and they had many machines on the floor ready to go. They never really starting moving them until the first snow fall, which is due soon. Then they went nuts.  When I bought this machine, I asked about their service as it was a major concern and he told me their service is top notch and even went as far as to say that they will fix it on the spot while I wait. I don't know if I will ever get to test that tho as I have to have it picked up and delivered. If I had my own pickup I would definitly test that statement.

Hi Snowman;

Thanks for the insight and the warning. I have been studying the assembly on the parts radar site and I have took notice to those thin wall bushings.  I am always careful to take notice of things as they come off and go on. As long as attention to detail is required, I think I will do fine with ensuring that this unit goes back together properly.


Hi Pvrp / Paul;

Welcome to the forum. Glad to here you getting a new ariens. A side from my recent troubles with the wheel and rust inside the chassis, I have been mostly please with the performance of snow removal. I too wish there had been a post similar to mine when I bought my unit as I would have done the same as what you are going to do. Remove the wheels and grease liberally. Some of the problems I have encounted with this machine are. The chute cables were not adjusted properly and some days the teeth of the gear wouldn't lock and the chute would vibrate freely in any direction the engine or wind wanted to move it.  The Chute rotation and deflection cables would freeze and were unless for about 5 minutes each time I started the machine.  Major rusting inside the axle chassis and even the friction plate. How little grease were on moving gears, such as the differential, chute control, etc..   The most obvious right now, the wheel being rusted so much it cannot be removed without major trouble.

Things that I still have to look into are. The belt is loose, so much that it eated a small corner off the plastic shield that was covering it. The chute rotation handle in the control area always hits the frame when I push it to the left. The right side has tons of clearance.

With this all said, I am still happy I bought the ariens as I feel it is well built/solid. Just some tweaking needs to be done.  I don't consider myself mechanically incline, in fact this is probably the most I have ever gotten my hands dirty with when it comes to machinery. But its my first major investment that I feel I can tackle. I mean a lawnmower is not that much fun, lol.. A car is to expensive for me to even think of touching.. lol.. Tho I do some maintenance on it. Oil change, plugs, wires, etc..    Lucky for me I have a shed that lets me work on this and have limited tools. This machine has been excuse to buy a few things here and there.. Weeee :)   But for somebody that doesn't have access to that stuff, I would imagine they may be a little ticked with this machine. Or maybe they wouldn't care, as it works fine really. It blows snow perfectly.  Without getting your hands dirty you wouldn't know the belt was loose or the tire was wielded on, or rust on the axle.  All you would probably know was that the cable freezes and you have to wait for the machine to warm up to melt it or vibrate it free. Minor annoyance probably for some.  The real problems for most wouldn't be unitl the belt broke or the machine rusted enough to cause problems for needing the wheels off. Then they would be in for it.  I guess I am being a little proactive and getting things ready for problems that may arise.

Thanks for the parts manual, I didn't know that exsist. I was always loggin online to look at the parts radar site.  The axle and wheel section looks to be exact as mine and I too suspect its a typo. The great thing about that manual is that I can print it off and the images are much larger then the parts radar site.

Thats for the idea of removing the whole axle. Truth be known I was thinking the same thing and wondered why nobody suggested it. This was another reason why I was thinking that I shouldn't touch the differential. Maybe something bad would happen if I removed it off the axle. lol.. See I told you I wasn't that mechanically inclined.  Tho, I couldn't seem to get my mind off the fact that it should just slide on and off and that it should all go back together nicely with proper care. Now that snowman has confirmed it and you also bought up this idea, I will definately try this before I bring it to the dealer.  The short axle appears to be moving freely and not rusted, so I should be able to remove the whole axle. Once I get that off the machine, I cannot see me not being able to get that tire off. Some really nice smacks hopefully will free it up and best of all I don't have to worry about the bushings and differential for heat and vibration purposes.

Again, thanks for the information and ideas.  I hope to share a few as I learn them :) .  I am thinking I will start a new post when this is done, with some of the things I have learned summed up for a new owner or a newbie to the whole thing.  I also have a idea to stop the cables from freezing. Not sure if it will work and it may be laughable. But then again, I am Goofie Newfie.. haha.  But in concept I think it may work.  Will test and see, will post idea and results and soon as this wheel problem is fixed.


Cheers All
Goofie Newfie

Just a footnote : it would probably be a good idea to put a piece of hardwood between the end of the axle
and whatever you're hitting on it with to avoid damaging the axle.

Paul

WoooooooooooooHoooooooooooooooo!

Wheel is off.. Thanks Pvrp.  I did just what you said. Removed the axle and smacked it out. Now to clean these parts up and put it back :)  Only problem I ran into was the roll pin. I never had a punch, so I ran off to get one, tried other things first, but nothing worked like the punch.  I did wonder how hard it would be to get back in tho. Not looking forward to that part, but none the less. Wheel is OFF! Yipppeeee :)

Inside the wheel and the axle it was rusted quite bad and felt like a very ruff sandpaper. Glad I caught this now. Soaking it in so pb blaster right now to cut off most of the rust before some light sanding.

Thanks to all the helped, certainly gave me the confidence and knowledge to get this done.

Cheers
Goofie Newfie

goofienewfie wrote:
Good news !  Roll pins aren't hard to re-install though it looks like the pin is up against the side of the box which
may mean using the punch to drive it back in which can be a bit awkward.  I don't know what size punch you bought
but it's easier on the pin if the tip of the punch is bigger than the pin.   The pin is a spring and its ends are a bit
tapered so as long as you line it up properly before tapping on it it should go in ok.  It's a lot easier when you can hit
on it directly with a hammer.

Just out of curiosity, how rusted are the clips that hold the wheels on ?  I really don't understand this design,
it just seems so flimsy to me.  Sure the clips do the job on the showroom floor but how long will they last in hard
work in salt saturated street slush ?  In comparison, my 1999 Ariens 1024 has four half-inch bolts holding
each wheel on.

Paul

pvrp wrote:
The roll pin is right up against a washer that is tight to the box, I have two size punches, the one bigger was definitely better.. Not much room to work at the roll pin, but I am sure I can get it back in. Just not without some hassle tho, always the way :)  I have the axles and differential all back and assembled, but its not %100 percent complete. Having trouble getting the bolts out of the rake that I original broke off trying to remove the one wheel.  All three are snapped off and rusted pretty good in there. Have broke off two screw extractors trying to remove them. Only one bolt left without a broken of screw extractor it in right now.  Any tips on removing them. The screw extractors I am using are a reversible drill bit type. I have seem another that are almost twisted square / diamond shaped without any drill grooves. Wonder if they are better?  About to give up on that and buy a new rake, don't imagine it will be that expensive.  The nylon bushing inside is in great shape and the heat didn't seem to do any harm to it.

As for the clips, they seem to be in great shape. Aside from being covered in rusted grease, they are good. Maybe the rusted grease helped :)  The concept seems to be ok, Not sure in the long haul. I am sort of glad that it was these clips as the bolt would probably caused more problems for me, according to the rust I had to deal with.

lol, $9.95 Cdn for the rake shaft.  Would have been better to just buy that originally. Cost me same price for screw extractor kit.  Oh well, least I still got three more sizes left to crack off some other time. :)

I ran into the same problem last weekend on my 3 year old 926DLE Pro.  I thought it would be a good idea to take the wheels while it was still "new" before they rusted on.  I was too late.  The right side wheel came off with a little work.  The left side is rusted to the axle.  It will come out but it's going to take the axle and the differential and everything else that's attached to the axle with it.  I decided to leave well enough alone for now.  I just have to be sure the right side wheel doesn't rust to the axle so that I can take the axle off if it should become necessary. 

I don't know how many people  already include removing the wheels as part of their pre-season checklist but in my opinion it should be in the manual, along with a specification for an anti-sieze coating that can be applied. 

I definitely agree. This should be in the manual under yearly service. I even think how the wheels are removed should be in there as well. Even knowing now how easy it is with it well greased. But they assume that wheel removal is common knowledge in my manual. With the rust it seem to be more to it at first, but would have ease my mind knowing there was not if written in the manual, then I would know it was rusted for sure.

Cheers
Goofie Newfie