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

Hey, I have had my 826oxe for almost three years and for the first time the two shear pins that bolt the impeller onto the shaft that leads into the auger gearcase broke. I never had any on hand because I was told/it is advertised there is no need for shear pins in these machines. And I couldn't get new ones when this happened because everything was shut down due to the storm. So I had to shovel! When the shop did open the next day they said it was common for this to happen, especially due to the high stress on the machine because the type of snow it was clearing(wet/heavy/hard packed and about 3 feet high). The guy said also that the shear pins in the auger do break on occasion. So I picked up a bunch of extra shear pins for the impeller and auger. I wish they had told me this when I bought the machine so I would have had them on hand for when they were eventually needed. Any other toro owners have this happen? If you haven't, and you don't have any extras in your toolbox I advise you to go buy some!

The bolt can be seen in this link(third one down):
http://www.repairclinic.com/Toro-Snowblower-Shear-Pin-Parts

borat wrote:
This is multi-faceted.  Consumers aren't the only ones to blame.  Designs are often influenced by ease of manufacturabililty, lower costs, mistake proofing, reducing risks and liability.   Heck, Walmart and Costco drives the costs down even further.  Consumers are too used to gimme gimme the best at the lowest prices.  Plus, they don't want to take care of it since they can get a newer and better one a few years down the road.

The current generation are bombarded with too much information to really spend time to be good at anything.  The days of learning with your Dad are now replaced with carting kids around to soccer and football practice.  Kids are now entertained with Ipads and cell phones.  If they ever need to know anything, just open up Youtube.  It's rare to see kids do household chores, mowing lawn, shoveling snow.  Heck, even parents are too busy to do that themselves.  They outsource them so they can have more time toting kids around soccer practice.

I wouldn't say manufacturers capitalize on consumers mental and physical laziness.  It's a loosing battle, make it cheaper and better to stay in business.  The sad part is price pressure drives manufacturing to outside of the consuming market.  I don't see how a consuming mass doesn't produce what they consume?  They need to produce something to consume. 

ajallen wrote:
That is not the ones they sold me, if they did use that in the past they must use a new part number for it now. Plus, what need would there be for the part of the bolt that goes inside the shaft to be threaded? Serves no purpose as you don't thread it into the shaft, you just push it through and screw the nut down on the other end.
The bolts they sold me fit and work perfect and look exactly like the ones listed in the parts manual for the 1128oxe, 1028oxe and 926oxe currently on toro's website(the 826oxe isn't on there any more).

giocam wrote:

 

It makes sense when you understand that the Toro engineers wanted a slightly weaker bolt for this application so that it would break easier if it “say” had to eat a dog chain.

If you look for a sticker on the back of your machine you will find your real model & serial number use those numbers to look it up on Toro's site

ajallen wrote:
What are you talking about? The bolts that were in the machine at the time were the factory bolts which obviously weren't THAT weak(however, the chain didn't make it to the impeller. Just wrapped itself around the auger)! And I have no idea if those were fully threaded or not. But what difference does that make anyway? Are you saying fully threaded bolts are weaker? If that is the case, then why is it so common for shear pins for many models out there not to be fully threaded, and why are the 2012 oxe models coming with bolts exactly like they sold me? I have absolutely no clue what your comment has to do with the bolts they sold me. They are fine, I know that.

Like I said, if those bolts you say were used in the past on the oxe's, they aren't anymore and that is what matters right now. They must have changed for a reason.

A fully threaded bolt is slightly thinner.

giocam wrote:

For the new machines they are now saying to use the 321-11 but if you look up your model by model & serial number I think that you will find it says 321-44 either bolt will work sorry if I offended you. And yes the 321-44 is weaker.

ajallen wrote:
Well maybe they were too weak which resulted in the change. Either way, I have the current bolts and that works for me..

After 4 years and about 200 hours of heavy operation, the impeller bolts broke on my Toro 826OE. I never found any obstruction -- was just throwing heavy, crusty EOD when I heard a metallic crack and the impeller stopped throwing.

The stock bolt (321-44) is a grade 5, 1/4 - 20 x 1 7/8". It is a tap bolt, meaning full threaded. This bolt is not too easy to find in hardware stores (mine only had it in grade 2) but I did find a 1/4 - 20 x 2" tap bolt at the local machine shop. The bolt had gold zinc coating and came in grade 8. I got 1/4 - 20 nylon locknuts in stainless steel and was back in business. Though the grade 8 is slightly harder, I'm not too worried about that. I put some grade 5s on order.

Also picked up some extra grade 5 auger bolts in 5/16 - 18 x 2 1/4". These have 1 1/4" smooth shank and 1" threads. They require 5/16 x 1/2" spacers and 5/16 - 18 nylon locknuts.

Toro doesn't really say that the bolts will never shear. They just say that shear-pins are not needed. It was less trouble to find fairly common bolts than model specific shear pins.

samdog wrote:

Hah, this is too funny.  My 4 year old Toro 826 OXE quit throwing snow today for no apparent reason.  (We have had about Two Feet of heavy stuff here in NY this month, but today i was cleaning up 1-2" of fluffy powder!)  No apparent "clank" or anything, although I think I did pick up a small ice chunk right when it stopped, luckily I was almost done.

So, I came here to the masters to see if this thing has a shear bolt just for the impeller before I even started my research or had a chance to look at it and this was right up at the top, Abby's OPE never disappoints.

Question, how can I be sure that this is the issue?  The impeller spins freely on the shaft right now without anything else turning, I assume this is the sure sign?  And I need to pick up 2 (and some backups) of these and it is no big deal to just thread them into the shaft?

Thank You,

Dan