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

An Ariens machine has a two inch section of the friction disk worn down to the metal. The rest of the friction disk looks good with almost full rubber. How can that happen?
The tractor drive parts look ok. The hex shaft support bearings are ok. The friction disk carrier is not look and seems fine. There’s nothing in there to keep the wheels from turning freely so no backup stopping or holding the friction disk in one place.

If the clutch was very tight and first gear super slow, too close to the center of the drive plate, then usually the drive wheels turn so slow the person uses second to move. To make all the rubber wear in one spot you’d have to stand there with the wheels not turning for quite some time to wear away all of the rubber in a two inch section.
Also, the drive plate is now scored badly. It’s probably due to hitting the exposed metal on the friction disk. The owner claims it worked ok but I don’t see how that’s possible. There quite a difference in height between the not rubber section and the part with rubber.
How do you get a two inch bald stop in a friction disk with scoring on the drive plate?

932101... That unit is about a 2001-2003 or so. Uses the now-retired 932,XXX platform. If the drive is over-tensioned you can smoke the oil out of the bronze drive plate bushings and cook them (they'll wear down to nothing quickly if unlubricated). See if you can rock the drive plate left or right. It should only slide axially, not rock.

Someone could also have put an old 02201300 friction disk on that model. That's a big machine for that drive system. Only the 03248300 drive disk should be used (no aftermarket disks either). It's a very high performing rubber compound.

There was also a high performance drive kit released for that model at one time for high duty cycle environments (steep hills, Houghton-type snow environments, etc). Is that unit used as such? p/n# 53212100 is the kit, list price is $136.55. Your unit may or may not already be equipped with this. Count the teeth on the largest sprocket in the drive box. 21 teeth means you have the hi-po transmission kit.

Snowman,
>>Is that unit used as such?
There is an incline to his driveway not all that bad and nothing an average snowblower would have trouble with. BUT, if the guy was consistently going too fast when clearing then it’s possible to muck up any snowblower. He lives on a fairly wide street with a two car entrance and gets a fair size pile of OED. This is in Massachusetts near Boston so wet snow usually.
The owner got the machine new and last week the first service. The drive plate did not have any rock or wobble. It’s fairly well chewed up though. Given the now chewed up drive plate and the friction disk with the 2 inch section of rubber worn to metal and the rest in decent shape it must have thumped severely. He said he never noticed anything wrong. Snowblowers are big, not smooth like a car and when clearing people don’t notice something wrong thinking the roughness normal. I met a guy who had two Ariens Home Depot level 8hp machines and wore them both out. He said they were crap and I said I though they were pretty good and should last 20-30 years. He came to the house and drove some snowblowers around clearing and it was obvious he was pushing the machines unreasonably. There isn’t a snowblower made for a guy like that. The guy with the worn friction disk is not so savvy to these things so I can see where he may think his snow blowing technique ok but not really.

The replacement friction disk was the Ariens part and there’s no wobble in the drive plate. I lubed under the drive plate but its surface is chewed up so the friction disk life span is not guaranteed to be long term.

I’m sure he does not have the kit.

Thank you for the information.
David

I think if you have that kind of bald spot on a friction disc, you may have a bearing seizing on the friction disc drive shaft somewhere. The bearing may be locking up in the same place once and a while till if frees up.. When it locks it smokes the disc in that location. Now it may be caused (the bad bearing) by the friction disc being adjusted too tight , causing undue load and heat on the bearing..

AS I see it the drive plate is turning freely, the friction disc assy is locking up (due to bearing failure) and smoking the rubber and damaging the drive plate..

Alright..Good luck

Friiy

Friiy,
I think your right. It's got to be something stopping causing the friction disk to stay in one place for a long time. Either the shifter is out of adjustment causing the friction disk say in first gear to be at the center of the drive plate. It could also be the friction disk is stopped in some way while against the drive plate.

The bearings and collar the friction disk rides on seems fine. It could be the wheels get locked up or stuck in some ground snag so get hels in place.

For both of these conditions the guy would have to stand there with the clutch engaged for quite a while when the machine is not moving.

I put in a new friction disk and have to wait to see how it works for the guy. It may work and condition eat away the friction disk in a year or two. He'll have to check next year.

He did not know anything was wrong which seems impossible. The big bumping caused by the friction disk bald spot and the screaching of the metal on metal of the drive plate evidently did not get his attention. There must be something he's not telling me about the machine.
david