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

I just used my 1350 for the first time (bought used about a month ago, but only a year old)... 944.527394 (well the model doesn't show up, but that's the right number - it's a 27 inch OHV B&S 1350 series 305 cc machine) It snowed about 5 inches of snow a couple of days ago and of course I had to deal with the snowplow "droppings" at the end of the driveway. It went through it all pretty good. Good shooting of the snow and no problems with things when I was blowing the snow. I come out to the garage the next morning and I thought 5 or 6 dogs took a leak on my garage door from the pool of yellow liquid I saw. I open up the garage door and see this pool of yellow liquid under the front of the blower and going out and under the garage door. Question, would this be the auger gear oil? It says it takes Ronex ED #1 (Extra Duty) and I think it is yellow in colour, but wow that just baffles me as to how much was there. After that there seemed to be some light green liquid there too. Maybe the other guy coated it with something, but I'm afraid to start the blower for fear of destroying the auger casing. No gas smell and the oil level is perfect at the fill level... Before I start taking things apart, I'd appreciate some input as to what this likely is and what I need to do (new auger gearcase maybe, new auger gasket,) Also good place to get parts in Canada? I see that these are Husky machines, but not sure if Craftsman parts are cheaper than Husky or not. good info in these threads so hoping borat or snowmachine can chime in http://www.abbysguide.com/ope/discussions/32378-A-1.html http://www.abbysguide.com/ope/discussions/33989-0-1.html Cheers

Thorn, I don’t mean to be pushy or beg the question and if you don’t want to respond ok.  I’m just puzzled how you can have a ½ inch of slop at the gearbox.

 

 If the bearings hold the single piece auger shaft in place that bar won’t go up or down.  Any bending would be thousandths of an inch. 

 

If the gearbox can go up and down on the fixed in-place auger shaft there has to be slop in the gearbox itself.  The drawing show a flange bearing whose thickness if worn top and bottom would not make enough room for ½ inch movement.  The bearing and the case itself would have to be worn to get a half inch of movement.  They wear in a oval so for a ½ inch of movement there would have to be a big oval on each side of the gearbox.   

Also, just say you had those big ovals.  The auger drive shaft would not allow the gear on the auger shaft to push up the spiral on the auger drive shaft as the drive shaft has it’s own bearings which would have to be worn and even wear into the case to allow the ½ inch movement from the push of the gear on the auger shaft.  How is it possible for the gearbox to move on the shaft?  Or put another way where is the play that allows the gearbox to move?

Think of the gearbox internals: The shaft has a keyed gear on it so in contact with the axle.  The gear touches the spiral worm which is on the auger drive shaft.  The auger drive shaft is held in flange bearings in the case.  I just don't see any room for movement unless parts are worn by 1/2 inch to allow it.  Very confused.

Have to agree with Trouts. To have that much play, indicates that something is seriously out of whack. Installing a bracket might help reduce the amount of movement of the gear box but, I'd be concerned about the gear box internals. With that much slop, something isn't right and sooner or later, you will likely have serious gear box failure. I'd be tearing the entire assembly apart to find the problem now. Otherwise, the whole thing could let go at the least opportunistic time.

My guess is with a half inch play it should be fairly easy to zero in on the problem.

I need to check mine next time at cabin since there is still some slop but significantly less with the bearings. Do you think the auger shaft might be slightly undersized for the auger/rake assembly and as it spins it mildly shifts on the shear pin? As shear pins are offset on each side it causes a mild sloppy rocking? Just a thought

ok well I am not sure how I still have the 1/2" play, but I do... it does seem I am going to have to take the assy apart itself as you are right. Putting the bracket on will only delay the inevitable failure with the gear box assy later. Must have been some damage inside the gear box for that slop to still go on. That being said I do think that the husky bearing retrofit will help in keeping the auger shaft more horizontal. Also all other brands (saw some John Deere's at Lowe's this weekend and they have a rod bracket) seem to be using a bracket on their snow machines so there must be an inherent flaw in the design. Thanks for the links snowmachine... I'll bring that with me to the parts guys. Cheers

snowmachine wrote:

thanks sm, I'll check the shearpins. Perhaps they're super loose or something. The impeller shear pins were fine when I took it apart, but I did not check the auger shear pins. Maybe this has been like this since I bought it, but did not notice until the gear oil leaked out to start all of this... Cheers

thorn wrote:

Thorn I seem to disagree with your statement. The blowers that have a bracket are usually the more powerful / larger machines with a wide bucket and therefore need to support the gear case a bit. Its not that they have up and down play but rather to keep auger shafts inline under stressful conditions and to avoid damaging the internals of the gear case.

thorn wrote:

The impeller shear pins were fine when I took it apart. ???????????? Have not seen those. Am I missing something ????

hirschallan wrote:

This is a JD 28" wide blower with a support. Same size engine (13.5 B&S) as mine with only an inch wider casing. http://www.deere.com/en_US/ProductCatalog/HO/product/productlargerview/HO_LP1695441_LargerView.html http://www.deere.com/en_US/ProductCatalog/HO/servlet/com.deere.u90785.cce.productcatalog.view.servlets.ProdCatProduct?pNbr=LP1695441&tM=HO&link=enav# I do understand what you're saying and what it seems like that my problem is actually the internals of the gear box assy were damaged because of not having a bracket in place. I removed the shearpin bolts off right at the very beginning to see if I could pull of the auger shaft, but then realized that I needed to pull the impeller bearing assy off to get the whole thing out.

The impeller hub shear bolts are called Capscrews as well They go right into the impeller hub 1/4-20 x 1 5/8 - 2 of them. part number in my manual is 74780426