Abundell,
Generally and depending on the weather I flip all machines up on their bucket and degrease the internals through the back cover and belt area with leftover gas and paint brushes. Everything then gets slimed with grease applied with a paint brush. The back areas are tough to reach so I use a spray can of lithium to coat forward springs and other movements. If the rakes stop with the clutch I would not have checked further during cleaning.
With your ability to work on things you should be able to keep that machine for as long as you want. Blowers are not so complicated to work on and with what you’ve done the rest of the stock things that could go wrong you can handle.
Should you need parts the Ariens parts are very available online. Boston Lawnmower in Westboro is a big dealership for Ariens and used to be a stocking dealer. They have lots of parts for older machines.
You can sometimes find springs at hardware stores like ACE or Aubuchon hardware but they are pricey there also.
Parts are sometimes expensive and I try to locate less expensive parts but don’t complain too much when I can get them locally rather than online with the shipping cost. The local ACE repair guy estimated he has about $50,000 tied up in parts. The Boston Lawnmower guy estimated they have about $500,000 in parts. The very convenient small dealer up the street who I used to get a lot of parts from just went out of business as he could not keep up with expenses so I feel a bit guilty for begrudging his prices.
