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

As per the title, I need to remove the auger from my Ariens to replace a damaed rake. Apart from replacing a couple of shear pins, I've never done anything like this on a snowblower, so hopefully someone can help. I think I already know the answer, but on this particular model the unit must be "split" to remove the auger correct? I've removed the 3 bolts connecting the auger from each side of the housing and the 2 bolts from the hanger support. Next I removed the belt guard and the finger guard to expose the belts which is where I called it a night. I assume next is to remove the belts and somehow split the unit. As per the attched pic, there are two bolts (highlighted with black rectangles) on each side of the unit that appear to connect the auger housing to the main body which appear to need to be removed. Once this is done would the two remaining bolts (black circles) simply be slackened to allow the two halves to pivot? TIA.

Edit. Well I couldn't leave it alone and managed to separate the two halves of the blower and am left with this. Can I just tap through the center hole on the pulley hub and free the auger/impeller assembly?

Remove the pulley hub with the 3 "fingers". You did not need to un-do the bearing flange. Run a fine thread bolt all the way into the center hole on the worm shaft (so the head sits flush so you don't damage or peen the shaft) and tap the auger assembly through the bearing.

Thanks for the advice. I tried tapping it out with a socket as opposed to a bolt but it wouldn't easily budge so I picked up a 3 leg puller and popped it off in 10 seconds. I had enough play to get underneath the hub as opposed to grabbing hold of the "fingers" and risk snapping them off. I took off the bearing flange as I'm going to sandblast and respray the inside of the housing. Got some Dupli-Color DE1620 Chevy orange which is as I understand it a very good match for the Ariens orange. Thanks again.