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

AA...as requested

Tools Required –

 

Grease (your greases of choice)

Antisieze

10mm Wrench

10mm Socket

12mm Wrench

14mm Wrench

 

·      Remove support bracket that connects the Auger Transmission Housing. Four 10MM nuts/bolts on the top of the bucker and two that bolt direct to the Auger Housing.

·      Remove Blower Shear Bolt

·      Remove the Side Bolts that hold the Auger to the Bucket

·      Carefully slide the Auger Out

·      Remove Auger Shear Bolts and Slide Augers off.

·      Wipe old grease clean on the shafts, clean O Ring.

·      Apply  Marinegrade Grease/Antisieze on both the shafts as well as the impeller shaft

·      Clean the flanges that hold the Auger to the Bucket. Thoroughly apply Marinegrade grease to the flange as cup of the flange.

·      Put flanges back on Auger Ends and bolt everything back up. 

·      When putting back the shear bolts, I used a smigen if not less than a hairs breath of antisieze on the bolt. A little goes a looooooong way.

 

I could not bear not being up to OEM spec so I am holding off on painting the scratches in the impeller till I get Honda Paint Color R136 Diana Red.

 

 

While the Augers were out, I took the opportunity to do another heavy coating of sealant on the interior of the bucket. I also painted the Augers with Rustoleum Professional Black Paint. I like this paint as it is almost borderline industrial grade and has alot more solids in it.

Heh. This is only the beginning. There is where true OCD comes in

Come summertime, I'm going to gut her up again, touch up, wetsand, touch up, wetsand, clearcoat .
Take out my industrial steam cleaner, clean her up right, remove the weather sealant, and then do multiple layers of synthetic sealant.
Maybe even polish it with the buffer and  3 1/2" pad..

Man, that is OCD.  My car doesn't even get that kind of treatment.  :)

chefwong: Could you poste cropped pictures to not blow out the thread formatting?

Did you have any trouble getting the augers to slide off?  Did you try removing the pins with the cotters to check for corrosion there as well? These are some of the nicest photos I have seen on this auger assembly.   You could also buff the aluminum gear box with a very soft metal wire wheel. The aluminum will shine and you can clearcoat it to prevent oxidation.  As long as you are there, you could untread the fill bolt for gear oil on the gear box and anti-seize those threads. The steel threads of the bolt will sometimes corrode against the aluminum gearbox.

Trouts - The pics are semi hi res. Not 2560x1600 like my monitors but hi res enough that someone that was hesitent to do it would be able to see the details and not be hesitent to do it.

The augers slid right off. There was some clear grease and white lithium inside.
Bearing that this machine was not a new machine to me, I ~assume~ the machine was abused and give it a vigorous R&R.
Stage 2 of this is actually to replace some rusted parts, brush some others, polish & paint some other area's and bring it back to showroom spec in the summer.

I'm not sure what part of a 2 stager takes the most abuse but on mine, the areas that show surface rust/chippage is the wheel axle, the flat side on the impeller blades
and inside the impeller area, there is a couple of long horizontlish scratches that are down to bare metal.

With the Augers still out of the unit (3rd coat of paint was taking forever to dry), it should a be a breeze putting some blocks up to tackle the axle today.

>>>The pics are semi hi res. Not 2560x1600 like my monitors but hi res enough that someone that was hesitent to do it would be able to see the details and not be hesitent to do it.

 

I have no idea what the sentence above says.  High res is not the issue.  Size is.  Size blows out the formatting.  You could crop your picture to the needed area or post a few pictures.

 

High res beyond what home monitors can show is useless.  A 40K picture will be as clear and crisp on a 1024 home monitor as a 20 meg jpg.

Don't forget the lube down the one other shaft coming off that gear box. That one froze up on my Honda and I had to use a 12 ton press to get it off. I think it took all 12 tons of pressure to pop that frozen shaft loose, this after soaking in BP blaster for a week, and heating up wiht a Mapp torch. Sure wish the preventive maintenance that you did  had been done on mine. (on second thought, while the press did loosen this joint, I see no reason to take it apart. This connection to the hub is not secured with a shear bolt. That shear bolt is back closer to the drivetrain.  So worst case scenario if freezes up and is stuck, but the sheer pins on the auger and the shear pin closer to the impeller are there to protect the gearbox should you scoop up a frozen newspaper or squirrel.  Sorry for this long rant, but I now remember my only reason for removing this connection was to help me get to the auger.) 

Ouch. I picked up a couple of threads/users with similar seized issues and that was what prompted me to get the lube in now rather than put it off.
After taking a look at the assembly/disassembly and your other post....it is a walk in the park getting things greased up.
If I had to guess, just short of taking notes and taking pics, one could remove, clean, grease and button it back up in 30 minutes.

All the shafts got lubed right. My impeller was factory mint. Not even a hint of oxidation on it.

Thanks great information. Mine froze up the first winter because someone forgot to grease it when the dealer assembled it. I returned it and they took it apart and greased it. Seven years later when I break a shear pin I see that the auger spins perfectly.

I'm thinking that once it has been done correctly there  is no place for the grease to go so it should be good for life. Would you agree?