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

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.

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.

Actually I do have the heater box.  Just had it off to clean and work on the carb.
Still having issue with the carb. Need to pull it off and go through it again.

As soon as I get it running correctly I'm going to pull the tracks all apart and lube everything.
They are pretty stiff right now.

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.