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

bcjm wrote:
You do need longer belts.  I don't recall what length but I will take a look at the spares I have.  The original belt cover isn't tall enough.  The first one I made I simply
modified the original cover.   The material I used to make the second cover is called Sintra.  It's a PVC sheet material.  I will take some photos and post them later today.

Here are the original threads on the subject:

http://www.abbysguide.com/ope/discussions/52496-0-1.html

http://www.abbysguide.com/ope/discussions/52690-A-1.html

In my case I just used 2" longer belts since the new engine was 1" higher.
I cut the top half of the belt cover off and made a cheap one out of some flashing.

Hi.
I love the idea of your project!
I think you should open an official business of modifying/recycling Snow Blowers, and eventually open a new company and start building your "own" models.

When are you mounting a Yamaha engine?! (Just kidding)

I only have one question: what does it take to Serrated the Augers?

Thanks for your Knowledge

I have finished my conversion this weekend.   Took me a lot of try and error to find the right length belts.   For whoever wants to do the same conversion in the future, I have two things to note:

 1. The driving belt length is critical.  I bought one that fit but the idler pulley touched the metal rod that engages/disengages the auger.  It happened when auger disengaged.  I could not figure it out why originally.  I thought something needed adjustment but it turned out that the driveling belt is too short caused the idler pulley not in the right position.  36” is what I used at the end.

2. The new mounting holes can be drilled a little more closer to the auger.  The crankshaft pulley can be shifted on the crank shaft to line up with the auger and driving pulleys.  I had the crank shaft pulley at the end of the crank shaft when I did the measurement so the engine sits a little too far back towards the handle bar.  I don’t know if that will make it back heavy when blowing snow.

Now I just need to make a belts cover.  to complete.

JoelKlein wrote: Thanks for your comments.
I am thinking about producing belt covers.  Actually I'm working on the finial version of one today. 
For making the serrated augers.  I made a pattern out of thick card stock.  Traced off of an auger on a blower at Home Depot.  Took the augers off my blower.  Traced the pattern onto my augers using a lacquer pencil.  Then used a 4 1/2" right angle grinder with a .045 metal cutting disc to cut the teeth into the augers.  I made a jig to hold the augers in the vertical position while doing the cutting.
Screwed a pipe flange to a work bench.  Threaded in a 30" long piece of pipe and then slide the auger onto the pipe.  Made all of the short cuts first, then the long angle cuts.
The holding jig allows you to spin the auger as your working on it.  It also makes it easier to paint them when your finished. Paint one side, slide it off the pipe flip it over paint
the other side.

A lot of good work here, you did a fantastic job.  It should be a great performer too.

jrtrebor wrote: 

jrtrebor, so you"re the guy that inspired me to convince my son to modify his 1993 Ariens ST824 augers.   I did the exact same thing you did.  I went to Home Depot and drew the auger pattern on some cardboard, then we did exactly what you did.  I hope you don't mind me mentioning your post about it.  The pictures tell the story well. 

http://www.abbysguide.com/ope/discussions/59639-0-1.html

Our little project is done so far as the augers being ground.  We have to get the blower back together, but he is so busy at his job.  Well, I still have my blower to help him out if needed.

            
     Partway done with the grinding                 Done with the grinding #1                      Done with the grinding #2

Thanks for sharing your earlier posting about how you did this project.  Anybody can do it as my pictures illustrate.  We still have to sand and paint.

jrtrebor wrote:
Thanks!.  Yeah, it was a lot of work, mostly just the time, as you already know, but it sure does take a good eye and a steady hand to make sure the cutting blade goes where you want it to.  Like you said in your original post in October, it took a couple of hours.  The noise from the grinder is very annoying, but I had those 3M headset-style earmuffs from ACE hardware that kept my ears safe.  The end result is the reward, though.  It makes me appreciate your own project on that ST1032 a lot more.   The lighting in my son's basement is 8 can lights.  It really lights up the place.  About 25 feet by 12 feet.  It's currently in the final stages of its own remodeling.

Extra mentions:  You might notice the greenish-looking impeller.  He got a new replacement.  The old one had a bent tip (about a 30-degree bend), and the rest was dinged and dented around some of the blade edges.  Too rough for a Clarence kit.  He's going to sand and repaint the housing where it needs it, not a total strip and paint because the rest is pretty nice yet.  We also adjusted the chain slack in the gearbox, greased it inside and on the auger shafts, put in a new pulley belt and two new lower handlebars (the old ones were stress-cracked at the bottoms where they attached to the body!), and installed a new friction disc due to bad rubber on the old one causing some slippage.  All else looks very fine, but we're going to re-check the belt pulleys.  It would have been fun to have put a new Briggs on it (maybe a 305cc instead of a 250cc, just to give it a little boost).  My son has the headlight on it now, but it would be nice to also have a remote deflector kit installed on it, though the current manual approach isn't so bad.

I wonder if either of your gentlemen would be kind enough to provide us with the distance between the tip of each tooth and the depth of the valleys?

Thanks