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

I'm in the process of doing an overhaul/preventative maintenance on an early 1970's vintage Ariens snowblower; in particular, trying to free a "frozen" auger. One half of the auger spins freely on the rake shaft when the shear pins are removed, but the other half of the auger appears to be frozen to the rake shaft from corrosion. I am considering trying to remove the auger and rake shaft assembly from the blower housing, and then dealing with the frozen auger. Any suggestions or advice is welcome.

Good luck.  If you need more help you know where to find us. :)

When you were greasing them over the years did you remove the bolts and spin the augers?  That is suppose to help distribute the grease around better.

Spinning the augers after removing the shear pins was a critical maintenance step I missed over the years; I discovered that yesterday after downloading and reviewing several maintenance manuals for my snowblower. It's why I did that check and discovered I had one frozen auger. It's also what inspired my summer overhaul project; better in June-July than in the middle of a Canadian winter!!

I've also replaced shear pins from time to time, and that requires aligning the auger with the rake shaft and typically requires rotating the auger on the rake shaft. However, purposely spinning the auger would do a much better job of distributing the grease around the rake shaft. The other factor is that I was not using a marine grease that is fresh and salt-water resistant. That's another bit of hindsight I discovered during my internet research. Now, if the Internet were here forty years ago....

The blower got a new engine in 2004; Tecumseh HMSK110. See image at URL below.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/norvarg/5884841593/

That is for sure.

Making progress. Tractor subassembly is now separated from blower sub-assembly. Friction disk and drive belt have been replaced in tractor sub-assembly; both were severely cracked and worn. Next steps will concentrate on blower sub-assembly. See photo below.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/norvarg/5891311055/in/set-72157627079486504

The youtube video at the URL below provides an excellent description of how to change the friction disk on an Ariens snowblower. It's by the same author as the video recommended Shryp above. I was able to follow the instructions almost to the letter and it was a breeze!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16wyIncM8Ls

Good luck freeing that frozen shaft, I hope you've been successful by now.
Yes, donyboy73 has uploaded a lot of very good how to videos for snow blowers. Helped me a lot when I was reinstalling a rebuilt card on my machine.

Cheers