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

Unlike my old school Craftsman, there are no grease zerks on the auger shaft on my Ariens. I read all the time on this forum about people digging into frozen augers, shafts, and gearboxes. I am thinking about drilling, tapping, and fitting the auger blades with a grease zerk on each side of the gear box so I do not have to break down the entire auger every time to lubricate the shaft. At the end of the season do you experienced snowblower hands break down the entire auger assembly to inspect, clean and grease it? If that is the case, putting in the grease zerks would be futile.   

they make drive zerks or press zerks for thinner steel so you don't have to worry about trying to thread the thin steel of the auger tube.  Also they make zerks without $#%* so they do not protrude so far into the auger.

Just in terms of what people do, I personally don't pull the machine apart at the end of the year. My MTD did not have grease zerks. I hopefully put some grease on the shafts when I last had them apart ~9 years ago, but I couldn't say for certain. They haven't been removed since They are also still free on the shaft. They can move around a little bit on the shaft, which may help. If they had a nice snug fit, and did not wiggle on the shaft, I'd expect they'd rust solid much more easily and sooner. I do store it indoors, so its out of the weather.

If you can add zerks easily, it certainly wouldn't hurt. Worst case, at the end of the season, you could try to spray/drip some oil into the shafts, from the ends, then remove the shear pins and spin the augers on the shafts? That would both help to distribute the oil, and also maybe knock down the rust that was forming.

blomberg91 wrote:

What is your model and serial number?

I am at work for the next week straight but the manual I downloaded from Ariens before I left lists them as ST927LE and 921005.

RedOctobyr wrote:
Rather than oil which could wash out, why not try some of the antirust type products that foam up and displace water?