Now that I have my new Simplicity on the way, I need to fix my Ariens 8524 so I can figure out what to do with it from there. Either sell it, or give it to my dad to replace his Craftsman.
I ran it trouble free for 4 seasons. Broke a shear bolt once or twice, but that was it. Then at the start of this year, checked fluids and gear oil and lubed, second time out the gears in the auger box stripped out. Just normal use, didn't hit anything. Kinda bummed that shear pins didn't go first, but figured that I could replace the parts and be good for a number of more years.
After fixing everything, replacing gears, all else looked good, first time out got 80% done and the gears are stripped again! So now the simplicity is on the way. Question is why would these gears strip so easy? Why didn't the shear pins go first? Will it just happen again?
I read some other threads here that seem to indicate this is a problem with this model. Anyone else find a solution, or will Ariens help in the matter? The machine is 4 or 5 years old, but even my dads 10 year old craftsman is going strong. It came from a dealer that is to far away to most likely be much help, but it wasn't Home Depot or Lowes, but still seems like the cheapened model that others say had issues with this.
This message was modified Dec 31, 2008 by pgill
