Abby’s Guide > Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) > Discussions > My latest acquisition, Craftsman 8/26 Track Drive
Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions |
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jrtrebor
 
Location: Michigan - 3 hours north of Chicago on the lake
Joined: Feb 10, 2010
Points: 539
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My latest acquisition, Craftsman 8/26 Track Drive
Original Message Dec 15, 2012 9:15 am |
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Found this on CL the other night. It's an older model but I don't think it saw much use. Paid $100.00 for it plus $35.00 in fuel to pick it up. Gave it a bath and it cleaned up nice. I now have a real understanding for the comments I've read about moving one of these track drive machines around. They don't move. It's like trying to muscle a wheelbarrow full of sand around in the mud. Six forward speeds two reverse. Got a decent sized auger gear box. Augers are free on the shafts and it has grease fittings. The whole blower section and augers aren't that beefy, like on some other older model blowers. 12" impeller  The friction wheel and drive plate are much smaller is this blower compared to others I've seen. So are the drive belt pulley's. Pretty straight forward drive train. Axle bushings are good and snug on the shaft. Got lucky and found a free owners manual online.  It's got a good engine on it w/elec. start. Carb needs to be pulled and cleaned. All the decals are in good condition.   These are the adjusters for the rear track hubs. There is an inner and outer one.  Drive axle, sprocket and chain. Driving the front hub. 
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FrankMA
Location: Merrimack Valley/Northeastern Mass
Joined: Jul 1, 2010
Points: 587
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Re: My latest acquisition, Craftsman 8/26 Track Drive
Reply #5 Dec 16, 2012 7:05 am |
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Was working on it today, cleaned the carb. and got it running.
But I believe the past owner and his buddies had the carb. off.
The gov. isn't working correctly so I suspect they put the linkage rods back in the wrong holes.
Starts and idles well but full throttle takes the RPM way up.
I'm going to be selling it, as I have no real interest in a Track drive.
My blowing situations require a lot of maneuverability.
I really just wanted to look under the hood and see how track drives are set up.
After looking at things and giving it some thought. I'm thinking that a person
could modify the axle on an Ariens to accept the tracks.
You'd end up with a track drive system that would make use of the differential
system on the Ariens. That would be slick.
You'd have the benefit of the "tracks" traction. But the blower would steer as if you had
independent control over each track.
May have to give that some more thought before selling the blower.
I believe Ariens sells a track drive conversion kit that will allow certain wheel drive units to be retrofitted over to a track drive...
Toro Wheel Horse 522xi GT, Honda HS928TA, Honda HS621AS, Honda HS520A, Toro CCR3000 (work in progress), Honda HS624WA (sold 08/23/2010), Stihl BR550 Backpack Blower, Stihl MS250, McCulloch MS1635, Honda EM6500SX Generator
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borat
Joined: Nov 10, 2007
Points: 2692
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Re: My latest acquisition, Craftsman 8/26 Track Drive
Reply #8 Dec 16, 2012 3:25 pm |
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carlb: I can't imagine anything being much slower in reverse than my 2006 large frame Simplicity. I have to be pretty much flogged or in a fairly uphill situation to use reverse on that thing. Sh!t, even the highest reverse speed is glacial at best. Ridiculously slow. I'm assuming that's to prevent the uninitiated from sqeezing themselves to death up against the house if speed were a blazing 3 mph or more. That's just another reason for me to pull out the single stage machines. They're far easier all the way around other than when we get heavy/wet/frozen plow deposits. That and 14" plus heavy snow is the only time the dual stage sees action now. Oh, and did I mention that the SS machines are actually fun to use?
This message was modified Dec 17, 2012 by borat
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carlb
Joined: Nov 16, 2010
Points: 279
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Re: My latest acquisition, Craftsman 8/26 Track Drive
Reply #9 Dec 16, 2012 5:10 pm |
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carlb:
I can't imagine anything being much slower in reverse than my 2006 large frame Simplicity. I have to be pretty much flogged or in a fairly uphill situation to use reverse on that thing. Sh!t, even the highest reverse speed is glacial at best. Ridiculously snow. I'm assuming that's to prevent the uninitiated from sqeezing themselves to death up against the house if speed were a blazing 3 mph or more.
That's just another reason for me to pull out the single stage machines. They're far easier all the way around other than when we get heavy/wet/frozen plow deposits. That and 14" plus heavy snow is the only time the dual stage sees action now. Oh, and did I mention that the SS machines are actually fun to use?
Borat My old restored 1983 Cub Cadet will just about run you over if you put it in reverse 2 at full rpm, but, in first gear it will move very slow just the way i like it for EOD. 2nd and third gear are what i use most and its rare to use 6th I guess when my Cub was built they figured you had more sense then to run yourself over in reverse with your snow blower and if not more sense then Darwins law could take over.
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jrtrebor
Location: Michigan - 3 hours north of Chicago on the lake
Joined: Feb 10, 2010
Points: 539
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Re: My latest acquisition, Craftsman 8/26 Track Drive
Reply #11 Dec 16, 2012 11:44 pm |
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carlb: I can't imagine anything being much slower in reverse than my 2006 large frame Simplicity.
My Ariens is the same way. Painfully slow in reverse.
Next time I have an old Ariens around I'm going to filp the friction disc over and install
it backwards. You'll loose at least one forward gear but it might be worth it if the reverse speed
quickens enough. Could also be clearance issues have to wait and see.
Don't believe flipping the disc over will have any real negative effects on the shaft bearings.
Or that there would be any strength or stress issues on the disc itself.
Flipping the disc over would move it I'm guessing, close to another 3/4" of an inch onto the reverse side of the
friction wheel/plate.
This message was modified Dec 16, 2012 by jrtrebor
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