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

Hi Clutter!

If the pin is broken the auger will have rotated on the shaft to some degree. You must line up the hole in the auger with the hole in the auger shaft and tap out the broken piece with a drift or punch. Do it using as little force as possible with as small a hammer as possible. You need not take off the blower housing.

in order to reorient the auger shaft  so that the pin hole will point forward so you can get more of a hammer swing :

1) turn the engine switch to the off position and remove the key

2)Hold the auger control handle down and pull the starter rope. This will turn the auger shaft.

3)chek the auger/ shaft position until they point forward so you can get the appropriate hammer swing.

4) do not enlarge the holes by using too wide a drift or punch.

5)Do not over tighten the replacement pin. The Torque specification is 11ft.lbs for my TroyBilt which is typical.

6)If there are grease fittings on the auger it's not a bad idea to grease them till the grease runs out the ends and spin the auger on it's shaft before installing the new pin. 

Welcome to the site,

Marc   

I was able to literally push my old pin out with the new pin using only "hand force"  The trick is to get the auger holes centered so the old pin parts will pop out.  You may find that they just drop out once you get them aligned.

Hi Clutternut,   If you need to turn the augers, or their axils so the pin holes are facing outward so you can get a punch in there and have room for the ham,mer.  do this  Naturally while you are in there you should pull your spark plug wire off, so you don't have an accident  . To rotate that system to get it to the angle for clearance, push down an the handle that engages the auger system and pull the pull start till you get it to rotate to where you can maybe work at it better

Ben07

I've always had luck just starting the new one in the hole, and wiggle the rake back and forth while pushing down, the old just falls out and the new pops in.

-Dave

I use a little different approach. I remove the key and spark plug wire. Then I get on my knees (no remarks please) and turn the impeller slowly until I can line up ther holes. Much better contol to get there quickly and put the holes in a position where you can get the best swing with the hammer.

It would  be wise to have a punch handy, they're not very expensive, if the bolts are rusted in you will need it. Take the replacement shear pins to a local hardware, Sears, or Home Depot and ask somebody for help if you're unsure for the appropriate punch. You'll fix the problem with less stress and have the punch when it happens again.

I would just add that when you're buying shear pins to replace the broken ones, get an extra set while you're there. 

The suggestion to grease and rotate the augers is a very good one, as Marty (Majorxlr8n) and I can attest to. 

Good Luck

Ralph

sheer pins or bolts...

tape a couple extra ones to the handle .

you will always have them.

wrenches and hammers and punches are easy to find but those darn sheer bolts are lost as soon as you put them down.

also curious that you have 4 sheer bolts in one machine...can you elaborate.

later chris

snow--
    new mtd's have quad-sectional augers, each section has it's own shear pin, erego 4 shear pins.  It's hard to see in the pic below, but if you look clse you can see the section break between the augers:

yes i have seen those models ,just havent worked on them yet.

looks like a good idea with the extra spiral on the augers,should provide a more consistant stream of snow to the impeller.

later chris 

found the head to a shear pin in the yard and realized that it had broken.  do not know when it had occurred.  (first storm? last storm?)

 most of the screw and  the nut were still in the shaft.  (and the rake was still only spinning w/ the shaft.)

Anyway  replaced it w/ the info from his thread.....starting w/ the tick list given by marc .

it was a realllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll pain to get the old one out. the old one was bent. after a while  decided to remove the nut. that caused the screw to break in a second place.   that removed some of the bent screw shaft(?) and it finally came out.

Thanx