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

To be honest it looks like it got sheared off. It's zinc plated so it's gold and a 10mm bolt but I cannot figure out where the heck it came from. It's not a shear pin in the auger. My 1028OXE has 8 shear pins and they are all there. Looked all around the outside of the machine but nothing is missing. I have no idea where it could have come off of and it looks like the head was snapped/twisted off. But I've been all over teh machine except under it and nothing is missing. any ideas? Could it have been an extra bolt from when they made it?

Any ideas?

So Steve, I thought I'd take a look at my new Toro. See if any bolts match your description. I drag it out onto the driveway.
Everything seems fine up-top. Get down and look under it -- and there's a shiny new zinc-plated sheared bolt that had just fallen out.

It's a 3/8ths head. It sheared from one of the 4 spring clips that hold the belly pan on. They are along the lower sides as
opposed to being on the bottom. Here's the missing left front bolt, in front of the left wheel. 

These bolts may be over-tightened at the factory to keep them from vibrating loose and so tend to shear off. (Or perhaps
torsion stress on the frame sheares them.) 
The other 3 were very tight. I loosened and re-torqued them with blue threadlocker. Not sure yet about the thread/pitch
for a replacement, but I'll get a stainless steel one from the hardware store.

Below is a view inside the belly pan, looking forward and to the left at the spring clip with the sheared bolt. If one of these
is your missing bolt, it shouldn't present any problems until you can get another one.

That's the exact bolt, it looks exactly like the pic you have of yours and the bolt is missing just like yours. My guess is that the bolt must have sheared off somehow when I was changing the flat tire. I hope it's not terribly important because it will snow before I can buy another bolt to replace it. Hopefully the Toro dealer will have one. Did you need to take the unit apart to remove the other part of the bolt? It looks as tho you did. I can probably fix it on Tuesday if they have a bolt in stock. Thanks so much for your help! I love the Toro, great machine, these things are bound to happen. At least I didn't lose the auger when it hit some semi buried granite! It did scuff the auger tho.

To reach the bolt, take the belly pan off.

Drain the fuel and stand it forward onto the scoop. I stand the scoop on plywood to protect the paint.

All of the bolts are identical 3/8ths.There are 6 bolts on the back of the housing that remove the two rear covers.
You only have to take out the bottom 2 bolts as they hold the belly pan, but taking off the rear covers will make better access and visibility. 

Then remove the 3 remaining bolts along the lower sides that hold the belly pan.

Grab the sheared bolt with vice grips and turn it out.

You really don't need an OEM bolt unless you want one. Take an intact belly bolt to the hardware store and put it in the thread checker.
Buy a stainless steel bolt (anti-corrosion) same size/threads. Maybe get a few for home stock.
While you're there, pick up a little threadlocker blue. Put it all back together.

In the meantime, one missing belly pan bolt should not be any problem for using your 1028.

ps. Thanks for pointing this out. I probably wouldn't have noticed mine.

Thanks for the instructions, no chance of me getting this done soon as I'm heading overseas for about a month. The last thing I need is to make a mistake or worse get a cold. I'm hoping we can get to around 30 degrees or so with no wind as it's just so bitter outside and the garage isn't heated. Early April should make this an easy task done in a few minutes. It's just too cold out there, if it snows hopefully it will warm up. :)

I just took mine out and discovered that the Toro design is much better thought out than than the MTD
I'm used to.

With the belly pan bolts on the side it isn't nessessary to tip the machine onto it's scoop. You can remove
the belly pan with the Toro on it's wheels and the sheared bolt will come out with the pan. Then it's easy to
turn the bolt out. 

Good luck overseas.

Got a flanged, zinc-plated 3/8ths bolt at the hardware store for 57 cents. The thread size/pitch is 1/4 and 20.

This is a grade 8 so it's much harder and more shear resistant than OEM.

I would recommend putting one in as I found the belly pan tends to droop and will scoop in snow without it.