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

We have a function to go to yesterday.  It's snowing the whole time and when I get home there's about eight inches on the ground.  earlier in the day I was all psyched to get a blowin' but when I got home, I felt terrible and went to bet early.

I'm kind of glad I didn't clear the driveway because when I wake up, there's twice as much snow and all of the dirves that were cleared are once again, covered.  So, I go out, spend ten minutes trying to fire up the Toro before I realize I have the fuel shut-off valve on "off."  I turn it on and the 'Ol Tec starts with one pull. 

The snow is around fifteen inches deep but some drifts were three to four feet and the EOD was about three feet of pretty heavily packed snow.  El Toro handles it all in stride until I get to the right side of the EOD when I am immediately reminded of the email I recevied from Toro a while back:

"Toro snow throwers do not have shear pins.  The reason for this is if you hit something while snow throwing, the auger and engine will stop letting you know that something is wrong.  You can then remove whatever it was that you hit, start up the machine, and continue snow throwing.  If the snow thrower had shear pins, they would need to be replaced before starting the snow thrower again."

With all the snow, who expected the paper to be delivered...and the SUNDAY paper at that.  Well, true to Toro's word, the machine ingested the paper and stopped immediatley (I guess the shearless system works).  I didn't even have to look, I knew what had happened.  So, when I gor around to the front, there in all it's shredded glory is the Sunday paper jammed tight between the auger, impeller and housing.  A big screwdriver (the tool, not the drink), a sharp utility knife, and about thirty minutes of pulling out bits of paper, I get it a bit looser.  I figured since the machine got itself into this trouble, let it get itself out.  I start her up, release the auger and out flies shredded newspaper, not unlike the skiier who fell into the bug snowblower in James Bond's "On Her Majesty's Secret Service."

I get the driveway done, a couple of hundred feet of walk, and figure I'll do the paver walks and patio in back so the dogs will have a place to run around other than the deep snow.  While going along the sitting wall, the machine (apparently still hungry after eating the paper) scoops up about sixty feet of previously unseed low voltage wire.  This time the machine just snaps the wire and keeps running but I stop to look.  There it is, wrapped around the auger.  Off it comes, and blowing continues with no more events.  Overall, a good day.

LL

lland wrote:
I think Toro should pay for a new paper.

Glad the shear pin free system works, though I hope my Toro doesn't eat my Sunday paper because we use it to house train the dog.

Welcome Jake,

We need the new Toro owners to let us know here what the deal is.  In the past with the drum design the machine had to be hit by a plow truck before the pin would break and it is a long one that went through the entire drum, they have been known to never have to be changed because the drum prevented things from getting sucked in if that makes sense.  I am curious to here what they have to say also.  They look and sound like a sweet machine and while I like the protection of the shear pin system I too am tired of it.....

The old paddle wheel designs that Simplicity had in thre 60's and 70's didn't have shear pins. Something got stuck and the belt slipped. I am most curious as to how this works on the Toros. Are we to understand that there is no mechanism to protect the gear train?What happens if the blower eats a newspaper or worse?

Marc

PS- The print size modification was too small for me. Can't beleive Chris locked me out and moved me! I'm such a naughty lad!

Next time he won't let me play in the Snow!!

mml4 wrote:

ROFL....

OK, OK, you can still play LMAO.....

C

Sometimes you can start the machine,(newer models anyways)...and keep logging the auger lever and sometimes it will free up.It works on frozen squirrells anyways.

Seriously,Toros must hve some way of protecting their gear box. If not shear pins then what?

This is only my second season using a blower with pins and I haven't broken one yet. My manual gives a torque specification of 11ft.lbs for the shear pins. Would over or under torqueing them be cause for them breaking?

Marc 

I was wondering about the brass colored bolts that went through the auger shaft as well.  That's why I emailed Toro since there was no mention of the shear pins in the manual.  Their wanwer was what I posted above...they have no shear pins.  Maybe the brass bolts are just to hold the auger on the shaft (brass to avoid corrosion).

But, after my run-in with the paper, it appears that the system works.  The machine shut down very quickly with no additional stress (that I noticed) on the components.

Maybe I need to get my old paper delivery service back that on occasion would manage to get the paper stuck in a tree.  At least it was off the driveway.

LL

mml4 wrote:
If you under torque them they can get stressed over time and "slow shear", while rounding out the holes ni the auger and shaft.  If you go too tight they won't shear when they should.  Depending on what causes the shear, sometimes you know it and others you don't/  It's VERY important to pin changing that you keep the augers greased.  To do so, you take the pins out(so the augers spin freely on the shaft, squirt grease in via the zircs, sping the augers and replace the bolts.  I do it once/year with a heavy  synthetic wheel bearing type grease.

well i have a different take on those supposed unbreakable shear pins.  i have a 6 year old toro model 924 with the drum auger and those darn "shear pins".  i have a gravel driveway and have picked up rocks, newspapers, etc and never once has the machine stopped running as a result.  the belt just seems to either slip or fetch up, which results in having to ajust the belt tension after removing the stuck object.  i finally broke one of the shear pins late last week after sucking in a dogbone.  its the middle of winter and snowing on a regular basis, and the local dealer has a back log of 3 weeks in their service shop, so i am forced to repair it myself.  the shear pin broke flush with the shaft of the auger and after breaking 3 cobalt drill bits and trying a bolt extractor i am still unable to remove the darn shear pin bolt!!!  the next step is to remove the entire auger mechanism and drive shaft in order to heat the shear pin to see if it can break the bond between the bolt and shaft!  This is ridiculous!  toro should get rid of this stupid system and use regular shear pins like most other machines as it usually takes just a few minutes to replace them, which is not that big of a deal in comparison to what i have to go through to relpace mine!!   on top of the difficulty factor, they cost almost $20 to replace each bolt, which in my opinion is outrageous!!  the reason i bought toro in the first place is because i have a bad back which prevents me from shovelling snow and my local dealer recommended the toro as the most reliable.  next time i will buy a honda, or something more conventional, but NOT a toro!

I have a 1996 Toro 824 Power Shift with the drum auger.  A couple weeks ago I broke an Auger bolt after eating a 6" round cast iron plate.  This machine doesnt use "shear bolts" either.  The machine stopped dead in its tracks and I had to push it home like a dead mule.  I feared the worse since I knew it didnt have "shear bolts" according to Toro.  It did in fact break an auger bolt.  The bolt was brass colored and had three radial lines on the head which indicates a steel grade 5 bolt, There were no lines cut around it like a "shear bolt" to cause it to break easier.  There are small spacers used by Toro on  each bolt and these are not stocked by any dealer in the area.  Luckily I found the one that flew off when it broke.  I found some grade 5 bolts at the hardware store and reassembled the machine and its up and running again.  I will order the correct parts in the future.  I agree it is a pain in the a-s to replace these, glad I was close to home when it happened.  With the drum auger you have to work down inside the drum thru a large hole on each side of the drum to access the bolts.  I was lucky I was able to punch the broken  piece out with a long screw driver.

Toro has a nice marketing thing going by saying "no shear bolts required" they just dont tell the rest of the story by saying the auger bolts will break when they really have to, so have some on hand if you need them.  I couldnt imagine what it would have cost to fix the differential or the transmission.  This machine has an actual multi geared transmission, so there is no slipping rubber drive wheel to deal with.  I bought this in November for $300. sure beats the Ariens single stage I had.