Have a 10 year old Ariens 824, model 924082. During Sunday’s snowstorm halfway through cleanup the auger stopped turning. I did not hit anything or was there a jam. The impeller works fine and the shear bolts are good. The augers turns turn freely, both locked on the shaft. If you turn the impeller the shaft turns going inside the gear case but the augers don’t turn. I know the augers should not turn by trying to spin them, only way to move them is to turn impeller, but mine spin freely indicating a problem within the gear case. I am hoping it’s only the pin that holds the gear onto the shaft.Now my dilemma, I cannot pull the gears case assembly out because the collar( hub) that the auger pulley is bolted to is frozen solid. It must be removed to enable the whole gearcase assembly to be pulled out from the front of the bucket. I did remove the pulley from the hub to have more room to work.
I have spent 8 ½ hours today trying to get the hub off the keyed shaft. I soaked for hours with penetrating oil, used a torch with Mapp gas and still won’t budge a fraction. Our good friend Majorxlr8n (Marty) emailed and told me to do the following:
“If the auger shaft bearings are on the OUTSIDE of the auger casing, then all you
have to do is remove them from both sides. The next step is so simple - to pull
the augers & gearcase out, spin the impeller shaft either clockwise or
counterclockwise. The whole auger assembly will “walk” off the impeller shaft,
and VOILA - its all out!”
I will attempt this method on Thursday. I still would like to get the hub off just in case I will need to replace
the shaft with worm gear and the main gear that meshes with it. Sadly enough my Ariens parts manual shows
the shaft and gear must be bought as an assembly (73.00), even though I may only need the gear.
If the shaft must be replaced and I can’t get the hub off my last resort will be to use a sawzall and cut the shaft
close to the hub, once I get the hub off, I may be able to pound the cut shaft off the hub using a vise.
Does anybody have a suggestion of what else I can try to remove the frozen hub, perhaps there is a special tool that can get it off.
This message was modified Jan 25, 2005 by itzbinnice
