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

Here is a short video of my auger in action---> http://tinyurl.com/yemv6y3

   It looks like the machines of snowmachine, thorn and the belt change machine all are fairly new and have the same problem.  It’s got to be a design or build problem.  If I had a second hand machine that jumped around like that I couldn’t sell it to anyone.   The belt change machine sounds like it has some banging like it's 15 years old and had lots of service.

 

   When the belt change guy first starts his augers the gearbox jumps a half inch then seems to go in a oval.  It’s like it has side slop and either the rake axle is not long enough, rakes not pinned and the axle has a bend in the middle. 

 

   Snowmachine’s video is bouncing around so though to tell but it looks like his gearbox has the wobble also.  He’s got his shaft ends anchored and so does thorn.  It seems like the most likely thing is the rake axle is not straight and bowed in the middle along with side slop. 

 

   One possibility for the seeming oval movement is the axle is bowed and the two side bearings are not in the same plane with the center of the gearbox.  With a little slop that would make an oval.

 

   The machines all work and could last for years but it’s got to be taking a toll on the flanges and bearings.

I do have the 5-year Sears warranty so if it does fail in that time it will be covered. My blower use is probably far less than most visitors to this site so if I get 10 years out of this unit I will be happy. I will likely buy what is perceived as the premium unit at that future time. I know far more now than I did when I purchased this unit. This Electrolux/AYP design has been in production since the early 2000's so there is likely a 5-10 year service life at minimum. All the old service manuals I find show the same design.

EDIT: IMO: You will probably find most Husqvarna snowblowers with the same symptoms.

   I think that gearbox has been around for many years and a proven good design. Something fuzzy is going on to cause the wobble.  Installing a top brace might not be such a good idea.  Given the movement, forcing the gearbox to stay in place might wear the internals even faster.  It would want to wabble and can’t so put even greater pressure on the bearings, flanges and internal thrust washers.  

I have a Honda hs624.  A few years back while cleaning it I noticed that the gearbox could move if I grabbed it and put pressure on it.  I grabbed the fan shaft and was able to move it up and down aprox 1/2".  I thought this was odd as my Ariens is solid .   I then noticed that the newer Honda's had a brace.   Still I gave it not much thought.  Then I came across the Honda OPE service manual on cd rom. 

 While looking through it I noticed some service bulletins and started reading.  Honda had a problem with the auger shafts snapping in 2.  The Ariens uses a solid shaft going straight through the gearbox and augers to the bucket sides. So it is solid and firm. 

 Honda used a small nub as a shaft that only goes a few inches into the augers so there is flex.  After flexing or hitting some solid ice the auger shafts snapped.  Honda would replace the broken shaft,  Add a new gearbox housing with boss holes in the top and add a brace.  All newer Hondas have this brace.  I think flex is bad.  The brace should help him in my opinion.  When his gearbox moves it puts force on the busings, bearing and seals which could cause his leak.

 KNEE_ BITER wrote: I think flex is bad.  The brace should help him in my opinion.  When his gearbox moves it puts force on the busings, bearing and seals which could cause his leak.

If the fan shaft is warped and causing the wobble then I agree with you and that should be corrected.  If the shaft is true and the flex is from the force of the power being applied then the brace is the way to go.  I would think that the shafts are true where I see several doing the same thing.  Sounds like a thin wall where the ends of the augers mount,  A shaft that does not go all the way through, And force of power being applied and released causing wobble like the Honda was doing. 

I'll try to take some video today that may capture where some of the residual slop & play is in my blower.

Here is video of slop in mine even with bearings---> http://tinyurl.com/yk898xx

The camera is bouncing around while you are making the parts move so fuzzy. It might be better to put the camera on a box a feet away the shake the parts.

When the video first starts you push the left rake to the right. The right rakes moves at the same time so the axle is sliding through the gearbox. The gear could be sliding on it’s key which is probably parallel to the axle but is that doubtful. The gear is probably moving the same amount with the axle inside the gearbox. With that much movement inside it would seem there are no or not enough thrust washers to full up the case. It probably has a flange bearing, thrust washer, gear, thrust bearing and flange bearing with lots of spare room. Maybe the gearbox could use an added set of trust washers.

Last week I put together a Snapper drive shaft which was a little unusual than most. The auger pulley is pinned to the drive shaft at a fixed spot. The drive pulley rides on two roller bearings (not pinned) mounted on the drive pulley. To make the distance of the drive pulley come out right so that the friction disk can be brought against it when the clutch is engaged a series of washers are required to bring the drive pulley to the right position. I rebuilt it with to the factory drawing with new parts ordered from Snapper. When put together the clutch at full adjustment could not bring the yoke with the friction disk close enough to meet the drive pulley (on these machines the drive pulley face is the drive plate). After taking it apart, checking the parts and drawings then putting it back to together again the distance was the same and the drive would not work as before. The drawings or parts callout had to be off. I added thrust washers to fill up the void and got drive. That of course bothered me so I brought the whole assembly to the dealer and asked for his view. He said the drawing was off and the parts callout of 4 spacers wrong. In the drawing at least one of the spacers had to be wrong as the spacer called out is for a half inch spacer fitted onto a ¾ section of the shaft (the shaft is stepped ¾ to 1/2). I looked at two other close model drawings that use the same shaft and pulleys and they had different spacer and thrust bearing callouts. I know the thickness of those parts and think those drawings are off also. It’s not impossible for drawings to be off in important areas.

That might account for the slop left and right on your machine. Possibly the gearbox got built to a drawing with an error. You might need two thrust washers on each side of the gear or a thicker washer. The gear could be wrong, not thick enough or made without a sholder. Who knows, it could be many things. When you moved the drive shaft left and right the back end by the impeller is somewhat fixed but the parts inside holding the spiral have to have enough play to allow the gearbox to move, i.e. the drive shaft at the spiral end inside the case. The drive shaft flange and the front flange are not tight enough to prevent that movement. It’s either a poor fit or they are now worn allowing that movement. It could be a too small diameter spriral.

As mentioned above the axle movement seems to be allowed because it’s too short or not pinned to better tightness. Some slop is expected. The rakes move on the pins but that’s usual also. It seems like the intake area has a few factory build or design problems. Since they handed you a lemon I’d hand them back some broken parts just before the 5th season started and your warrantee was up.