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

Has anyone else had the hairpin in the pinion shaft located on the lower left side of the machine break?  I understand that it keeps the pinion from turning, but what is the pinion doing that it shouldn't turn.  It snapped off in below zero weather one day when I was rolling it out of the garage.  Can any harm come from not having the pin preventing the pinion from turning?  I emailed Ariens about the pinion anti rotation kit, and they said if I lost the pin I should call the dealer.  Yeah, and have them tie up the machine for weeks on end.  I just stuck something else in to prevent it from spinning.  Can anyone explain the operation of the pinion and what it is doing?

Your description is pretty vague so tough to address.  Are you describing something inside or outside of the tractor section?

Which left?  Left facing what, the handlebars or the augers? 

What "machine break"?

FabianFledge- If you are talking about the auger and you broke a shearpin you are in for trouble. If it is the shearpin you need to replace it with the correct one or risk your gearbox. I may be wrong in which case I apologize but what you are calling the pinion shaft I think is your auger.

I looked on the Ariens site and the only hair pin is part#50 on the auger control diagram which is a clip that holds the lever mechanism on the handle bar together. I think that could be reolaced with a cotter pin etc but that is not on the lower left.

Marc

I believe fabianfledge is taking about the hairpin inside the blower on the pinion shaft that holds
the big sprocket.  06712900 as can be seen on page 13 of the parts manual :

   http://apache.ariens.com/manuals/00432900A.pdf

I can't tell from the drawing what this pin does but if you say it's to stop the shaft from rotating
it's probably because they don't want to wear the holes in the case since there isn't any kind
of bearing there.  You can buy clips like this at any hardware store.

How could you break this pin ?

I notice that on other machines this pin is a split pin, and is on the outside of the case (maybe
yours is too ?).

Paul

fabianfledge wrote:
The pinion shaft shouldn't rotate. Too long like this and the frame will wallow out. The newer models have a better anti-rotation device. Have your dealer install it. Takes 60 seconds to install, literally.

pvrp,

My pin was on the outside of the case on the left side of the snowblower looking at it from the handles.  A screw sticking out of the case hit one of the legs of the pin to keep the pinion shaft from rotating.  It was fine for the first two years. The pin did not look like a normal hairpin when I got it.  It looked like a hairpin that had the one of the legs bent at a 90 degree angle crossing the other leg so you would have to bend it apart to take it off.  It is sort of hard to describe, but maybe the set up dealer did it.  I pushed the snow blower on a very cold day without it running and it just snapped where it was bent.  I tried bending it and reinstalling it, but the next time I used the snow blower I noticed it was gone again.  I put yet another pin in and I will see how that works.  Hopefully something else isn't screwing causing these pins to break.

Snowman,

Can you explain what you mean by wallowing the frame out?  I am assuming frame damage. Is the antirotation kit something I could install myself without too much hassle?

fabianfledge wrote:
Your hairpin should have looked like a normal hairpin when you got it. Must have gotten bent at some point.

If the pinion shaft rotates it will eventually wallow open a larger hole in the frame. That will increase the operating center distance of the drive gears, which will increase the pressure angle and accelerate the wear problem.

Grease your pinion shaft and replace the pin. Keep an eye on it. The latest anti rotation parts can be put on in a minute or two by anyone.

p/n# 52603400, list price $6.50.