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

I have a Honda HS1132 that ran over something that made a noise and instead of breaking the shear bolts the complete auger and blower assembly now turns independently of the auger pulley. I can not see behind the blower (blade) or in front of the auger pulley. I have been searching and researching drawings, parts and forums for some clues to the issue. I can't find anything. MY GUESS: is that there is a shaft (a 2-4" shaft) that attaches the blower to the auger pulley. There must be a bolt or pin that has broken. This is a vary difficult area to see and I would need to remove the complete auger/blower assembly and housing just to get a view. Is there anyone that has a picture, drawing or knowledge of what this looks like and what could be the problem?

Here's a couple of links to the parts diagram

http://www.boats.net/parts/search/Honda/Snow%20Blower/0/HS1132%20TAS/AUGER/parts.html

http://www.boats.net/parts/search/Honda/Snow%20Blower/0/HS1132%20TAS/AUGER%20TRANSMISSION/parts.html

http://www.boats.net/parts/search/Honda/Snow%20Blower/0/HS1132%20TAS/DRIVEN%20PULLEY/parts.html

   The belt driven pulley on the back of the machine drives the short shaft that sticks into the housing a few inches. 
The short shaft mates to the longer shaft that goes into the auger gearbox and held to it with a shear bolt.  

   Check that the start switch is off and pull the spark plug wire before doing anything in the housing area .  Then stick your
hand in the housing and feel around the outside of the short shaft in the back of the housing.    You should feel a hole
where the bolt goes.   The bolt fit is usually fairly loose and the broken sections usually fall out.  

   You can order the right bolt from the drawings posted or get spares from a dealer.   If you can't get a bolt quickly and
need to use the machine you can use a standard metric bolt from a hardware store.  The local Honda dealer says they
are ok to use.   I use them in the augers and drive shaft and go through 2-3 per season. 

Trouts, That is if it's a grade 5 bolt. One more thing worth a mention, not to tighten down any shear bolt but rather stop at the point where it can still spin some. Otherwise it takes a bit more to shear and risk something else breaking rather than the bolt. Iv'e seen bolts so tight that the tube and shaft are pressed together and that's not correct.

hirschallan, good advice, thanks. I just had to replace my first one recently, and was unsure how tight to make it. I left it a bit loose, so it could still turn.

Also, if your machine has grease fittings on the augers, use them. And maybe once a season, when you grease them, remove the shear bolts and spin the augers on the shaft. If the augers rust to the shaft, they can apparently be incredibly difficult to remove, plus the shear bolts are now useless, so you can blow an auger gearbox.

   Good point on the nut.   There's a lot of vibration in there.  When I've got them I use a self locking on the drive shaft bolt.  For the rakes just a regular nut
cranked down.   A longer bolt for the drive shaft double nutted would work.