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

I guess I shouldn't be surprised.  With all the downed branches from the ice storm, we couldn't clear them all.  A short length of a two inch thick branch got stuck in the impeller of our new 924DLE, stalling the engine.  It worked fine for a short while after, but now the impeller isn't turning.

I've already tightened the attachment cable a bit, but haven't fired it up again and won't until morning.  The manual says the idler arm should just touch the case, which I think I've done, but it's difficult to tell.  Also, one of the two belts shows some signs of excess wear, but not enough to make it fail imminently. 

One thing that concerns me is a loud thud when squeezing the attachment lever.  It could just be that it's just the combination of having the cover off and no engine running which makes it seem louder than it should.  I'm planning on tipping it over tomorrow morning, and taking a look a the mechanisms from there.  I'm wondering if there's something specific I need to check, or if that sound is normal?  Is it possible that the stuck branch caused more serious damage than stretching the cable and/or belt?

Thanks,
Gary

The impeller will turn freely by hand, at least a small amount (say 30 degrees).  It doesn't turn if I pull the cord with the attachment lever held down.

Thanks,
Gary

It does look as though at least one, and presumably both pins in the impeller broke.  I do see two pins, one sticking out on just one side, and the other going all the way through (but as we know, that doesn't mean it's not broken in the middle).  Also, to double check this, when I had the bottom cover off and the attachment level held down with a rubber band, I pulled on the rope.  The bottom pulleys turned, but the impeller didn't. 

On the other hand, when I opened the bottom cover, I found the broken head of a bolt along with a washer.  It's a half-inch head.  There's not enough left to reliably measure the thread count, but it seems coarse.  I think the only things it matches on the parts list are either the bolt holding one of the idler pulleys in place or else the bolt holding the big drive pulley in place.  After lunch, I'll go back and check if either of those are likely.

I'm going to call the dealer to see what they can do.  I'm not sure that replacing the pins on the impeller are a job that I should tackle.  Nor do I know whether something like this is covered by the warranty, but I suppose I should find out before I actually try to repair anything.  So far, I haven't done anything not described under maintenance, so I'm sure I haven't invalidated the warranty just by my tinkering.

Thanks,
Gary

If you can reach the shear bolts and get tools in there to take the broken ones out and put new  ones in, by all means, do it yourself.  You can pretty much bet that it will not be warranty work.  The shear bolts did what they were intended to do.  If you bring it in to be serviced, you.ll be lucky to get away with a $100.00 labour charge.