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

     I was just wondering if many operators have had to replace the shear bolts( pins) in their snowblowers.  

I had an old Craftsman, 32 inch   13.5 horsepower Tecumseh. snowblower that I used for 15 years

and had not broken any shear bolts.                 I took out the old  shear bolts a few years ago and  found they were badly bent, so I replaced them.    I sold it later , it was 18  years old.

were the augers rusted on to the shaft?

I have a 1993 MTD, 8hp 26". When I bought it, in ~2002, it had sheared off the woodruff key in the auger gearbox. Both shear pins were quite bent (I couldn't tap them out of the holes, had to grind them off enough to finally drive them out). I don't know what the previous owner hit, but I can only assume it hit on both augers at the same time, and overwhelmed the key in the gearbox, rather than the shear pins. I am pretty sure they were actually shear bolts, and not normal bolts, as I recall.

Replaced them (the augers were not rusted to the shaft). I've been using it every season since then, haven't replaced any shear pins yet. The augers are still free on the shaft (not rusted up). Now, granted, I haven't sucked foreign objects into the machine. But it's gone through a lot of EOD, icy stuff, etc, without a problem. It's not a fancy machine, and it's just an aluminum gearbox, but I'll give it credit, it's held up well.

royster wrote:

If you never hit anything there should be no reason why you would have to chage them.

Like someone already stated sometimes the rust solid to the shaft that you dont even need them! LOL

I always walk my property if there is significant snow in the forecast( before the snow starts). Takes a few minutes and saves hours of aggravation. Newspapers are a major PITA!!! Marc

Broke 2 shear bolts in the last 3 years.  I broken the first one by overtightened the nut, broke the second by back up the snowblower with the auger still spinning.  It caught on a lip between the street asphalt an concrete driveway apron. 

Usually snowblowing on my property is not a concern, there aren't hidden objects.  Going to the neighbor's to do good snowblowing deeds puts me on high alert for landmines.  I usually go slow and keep the chute aim low so I don't blow projectiles towards windows.

Funny this topic just came up.  I was out greasing the augers on the Simplicity and decided to pull the shear pins so that I could spin the auger on the shaft to spread the grease.  One came out easily but the other resisted.  I drifted it out and It was bent.  Auger spun alright albeit they're pretty tight to the shaft.  Not a whole lot of play there.

I know I told this story before but.... speaking of newspapers.

We had this real lazy kid about twelve years old who delivered papers and flyers.   Our driveways are pretty steep so rather than walk up each driveway or even across from one  driveway to the next to deliver, he'd walk up one driveway, (the neighbour's because he subscribed to the  paper), then he'd throw a bundle of flyers at my place.   Usually they'd land on the driveway in the vicinity of the steps going into the house.   Not a big deal if we're home but often we'd be away and return to a yard full of flyers blown all over the place.  In the winter, the Simplicity snow blower would turn the flyers into confetti or jam the impeller.     In addition to being lazy, he was also deceitful.   He'd package numerous copies of the same flyer just to get rid of them.  So, often there would be pretty big bundles left in the yard.  I tried talking to the kid.  Got nowhere with that.  Called the newspaper that he worked for.  Got lots of lip service but no action.  

After nailing another batch of flyers hidden under the snow, I was finally fed up.  The kid lived down the street and around the corner from us.  So I knew exactly where he lived.  I waited for a major snow event and prepared for vengeance.   I save up several large bundles of flyers and on the evening of a serious snow storm, I think it was a Friday, I decided to go for a bit of a walk.  Stuffed inside my coat were three good size bundles of flyers.   The snow was coming down fast and the wind was howling.  As I walked by the kid's drive way, I pitched the flyers into the snow and continued on my way.   The storm howled all night and into the next morning.  By mid afternoon, things had cleared up and the sun was out.   We had well over a foot of snow.  I cleared the driveway, and went for another walk past the kid's house.  Slowing down for reconnaissance purposes, I took a good look toward the kids house.  I could see their snow blower in the garage tilted backward and only a couple passes had been made on the driveway.  I suspect that the impeller may have been impeded by ingestion of one of the kid's own bundle of flyers. 

Now, you'd think that the kid's old man would have kicked his butt for the snow blower being jammed with flyers.  Nonetheless, the brat wouldn't change his ways.  I finally had to threaten the newspaper with trespassing if they didn't stop the kid from delivering to my house.  It wasn't long afterward that we no longer had that kid delivering flyers and I haven't had a problem since.  Flyers are no longer delivered and the paper is now delivered to boxes down at the street to home that subscribe.   

Dr_Woof wrote:

No, I always kept them greased.

mml4 wrote:

   The only  time that I have had with the problem of  something hidden under the snow was a few years ago,    I was moving forward  blowing the snow in  my back yard when I noticed that  that the snow was moving  well out in front of the snowblower. My son had his car plugged in before the storm and had left the extension cord and it got snowed under. I stopped the snowblower  and shut of the auger , but it was really too late. The cord had already made several turns  around the auger and was pulled tight  over at the side by the bearing. .The other end of the cord had pulled from the receptacle. It took qute awhile to remove the cord, but by cutting it in several places with a olfa knife, I was able to to get it  removed.