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

Last year I rebuilt my 1980 model Ariens 924050 with new gearbox, belts, paint, and most of the bearings. 

 The engine still pulls strong for being 30 years old, and all the wear parts are brand new but I have always been jealous of the newers Ariens blowers and their remote deflector control.  I have a very long narrow driveway with limited places where I can dump the snow, so the remote deflector would be really nice.  I decided to buy a remote deflector kit for a newer Ariens and find a way to make it work with my blower.  I chose the 724053 kit because it was cheapest kit I could find. 

First problem was getting the new style chute without the ring gear flange to work on my old machine with the ring gear flange.  I cut off the flanges on my old and the new chute and welded the old geared flange to the new chute.  Excuse my welding, I'm new and will be redoing the welding once I have time.

The more difficult part was getting the control lever to work.  I ended up having to cut a hole in my dash and fabricate some brackets to mount the control handle too.  I also had to relocate the deflector rotation control a couple inches to the left to make all the handles clear.  Hindsight being 20-20 I should've put the deflector control to the right of the drive control and relocated the throttle as it would've required less work, but the way I have it setup not works fine. 

Only thing left to do is paint up all the parts and redo the welding on the chute.  I may end up changing the chute rotation controls to the new style with the engine mounted gear because the 10 turns of the rotation control to go from left to right slows me down quite a bit when doing my driveway.  I just have to watch ebay for the parts to do it.  If that doesn't happen, maybe I will wait until this engine gives up and replace it with on that has an alternator and do an electric chute control.

GtWtNorth,

    Very nice update to a great model.  With chains on the old tires the traction was all most would need.  Those new tires are supposed to be excellent and many say don't require chains.  The low splatter from the old chute was a drawback.  Please post how you find the new chute for splatter and distance.  It will probably consolidate the flow better.

Hello.just wandering if that chute would have bolted on the machine with the ring gear that came on it.I have an older ariens and would like to simply bolt that defector chute on and without rewelding my old ring gear on.thanks

The newer chutes don't have the ring gear so you would have way to turn it.

Hello again.I'll be more detailed.My machine is a 1978 john deere 1032.I purchased a taller chute off ebay that was off a late 80's ariens that was taller and not as much pitch.It was a bolt on with the ring gear.Ariens made my made john deere then.Would that chute have bolted onto your machine befor you put the ring gear on.If i could bolt it on my machine without the gear thats fine as i would locate the parts to use the newer style rotation that your chute has the mount for.My driveway is 20 feet long but 60 feet wide and constantly cranking my chute is  a pain and the newer crank setup is less than half of my old deere/ariens setup.thanks in advance