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

Hi all, new to this forum after having searched for a solution to my surging hs 1132.
Among the several problems I've had with this machine is the severe pulling to the right when the bucket is in the mid or low position. I've put it on a flat surface and adjusted the shoes and scraper to manual specs and no luck. Shoes are even and scraper is even so no misalignment there. I've tried to adjust the shoes and scraper to counter the pull but nothing worked. Track tension is even. This is a pretty frustrating problem as I clean a long drive and fight against the pull the whole time - tiring and forget it if my wife ever has to run the machine. As usual, my honda dealer is no help whatsoever. I had to inform them of the icing kit I learned of on this forum after three years of bugging them about the surging, backfiring problem I was having.

dfvellone wrote:

Do you have a gravel driveway?  Is the bucket sides digging into the gravel over uneven sections?  IF that's the case, side skids may not help.  You may need to make a custom side skids that is longer and wider to allow the bucket to float over the grave/snow instead of digging in.

aa335 wrote:
My driveway surface definitely isn't level so I don't expect perfection but my old gilson brothers blower made this honda feel like plowing a rocky field with a rabid mule.

I clear my pond for skating and the machine pulls hard right. In fact on the ice I've held lightly to the handles and let the machine go where it wants to see how it turns and it'll pretty much just turn in tight circles.

aa335 wrote:
I do have a fairly rocky driveway - Adirondack sand and mixed size stone. I initially pack a light base with the car then for the first few cleanings I keep the bucket in the high position . Once I have a good hard base I'll occasionally clear in the mid position, some parts in the low.  If I just clear in the high position, by late february the base is just too deep. Otherwise I'd just clear in high and not struggle so much. But the parking area, walkways, woodshed areas are the killer for the turning.

dfvellone wrote:
On the height adjustment pedal, there are three notches on each side.  When you step on the pedal, the notches move back from a pin and allow you to move to the next notch.  I was wondering if one of the two pins are missing or not in its notch when you release the pedal.

aa335 wrote:
That's the first place I looked  last winter because I was hoping that there might be something I could adjust. Everything is together there. This is where I thought there might be a warp since the pulling occurs when I engage the pedal . It's the only point of control affecting the track wheels, right? The front wheels are mounted on the driveshaft and are static as far as their height. The rear wheels rely on the pedal/height adjustment assembly. If somethings bent there it could affect the how even the tracks are resting on the ground  and result in a pull one way or the other. Right?
Everything else seems fine. The mounting of the wheels is fine, the shoes are dead even and when I adjust them unevenly to try to influence the pull nothing changes. The scraper is even too.

dfvellone wrote:

The sprocket wheel (front) and the rollers (rear) are fixed in relation to one another.  When you raise or lower the bucket, the whole chassis rotates around the front sprocket shaft.  The track stays put.  I'm just thinking out loud.  If the pedal does not lock in the chassis on both sides, that might explain your feeling being uneven and rocking.  This in turn could mean that one of the tracks is loaded more heavily than the other.

Here's a parts diagram of the crawler.  It might help if you can take a look at the crawler assembly and the height adjustment plate assembly. 

http://www.wascolawn.com/pages/parts/viewbybrand/16/0/26488/4890/default.aspx

Have you tried removing the skids completely or at least raising them out of "operating range."  Just rely on the height adjustments and the front blade.  I  don't think that this will completely eliminate you problem but it may give you a better sense of what is going on.  I recently had my track drive honda apart  when a big storm rolled in.  I did not get a chance to put the skids back on so I blew the driveway with just the front scraper on.  Granted my hs-80 has a small 24 inch bucket but it does not pull from side to side.  It spins on a dime in the snow with one hand when locked into the mid and high position.   When the bucket is in full forward position it's stuck to the ground like rock. 

Your situation sounds a lot like the Ariens that I used before this honda.  I was always wrestling with it to keep it going down the driveway.  Constantly.  And I tried everything because it was   a beautiful brand spanking new ariens.   I think the issue was the relationship between the width of the chasis and the width of the snow bucket.  That's why I started looking for an 8hp blower with a narrow 24" bucket.  Maybe that's part of the problem with the 32. Boy, they sure look nice though.

I feel you pain on the cost of replacement parts. I rely on on-line parts dist., ebay and a local welder to keep mine running.

dfvellone wrote:

A Honda guy from another board posted this:

 check the scraper bar. If it is not even it will catch and pull the machine in that direction especially if the tracks are set at neutral or lower. 

Sounds like your issue. Maybe the scraper bar itself is uneven in terms of the edge being mismanufactured / worn and not even in the relationship between the adjusting slots and the edge. Kind of out of square. I know this is a "reach" but it appears you checked everything else.

Marc

Underdog wrote:
I haven't tried removing the skids - I adjusted them to dead level then started adjusting each  to different heights to see if I could manipulate the pull with their difference in height. I'll try to remove them...I'll try anything at this point.

mml4 wrote:
What i did with the scraper bar was to take it down to the pond and and check it against the ice surface. In the mid position I adjusted it to honda's specs which i think was between 3 and 5/32nds above grade. Then I put the bucket in the low position and pulled the bucket from the front to visually check how even it was scraping the ice. It was nice and even and the pull was still hard right.