DVerbarg
Platinum Member
The snow from this past week was a great excuse to get out and have some seat time. Unfortunately the seat time required to keep up with the driveway /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif and the blowing snow kept me from TBN /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif.
Finally had my first breakdown on the snow blower. Heard many stories of others and the constant replacement of shear pins due to picking up rocks and other debris. After clearing our driveway we decided to be neighborly (more seat time /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif) and help a couple others. Did my parent's driveway and while going through some 10" stuff the blower just quit. Scared the living daylights out of me. I'm used to shear pins but the PTO shaft stopped turning. Turned the PTO off and on, no movement. Won't repeat the details of what my original thoughts were but will summarize that I wasn't too pleased with the potential that something snapped in the transmission. Dejectedly drove back to the barn (after finishing the driveway the the FEL) and turned the unit off. Sigh.
Got off and started to walk out the barn but turned around and went back to look at the snow blower to assess what kind of damage there might be to it in addition to the tractor. Wanted to know how much money I might be looking at. Was mentally adding up the thousands and preparing my verbal tirade against the stupid engineers or maybe it was shoddy workmanship during assembly. Blood pressure was rising as I hand turned the auger on the blower. It turned easily enough, but occasionally there was a metallic clanging sound. Hmmm. Must be some slop somewhere. Seemed to come from the fan. No the fan does not touch anything. Turn it faster, its clanging more. Faster and faster (turning by hand) and then JAM, stops dead. Humph! What the ?? Turn slowly and its fine. Turn fast and it jambs again. Then my eye catches a little something down in the snow still in the blower. Start digging and it looks like it might just be, yes it appears to be, yep it is. One of those nice, twice as hard as poured concrete, round 12" stepping stones. A little scuffed up but still totally intact. Stupid $1.49 stepping stone breaks my $3500 snow blower!!! [angry] Those...those...engineers...humph!!!
Now I have a couple different emotions coursing through my veins: relief that the snow blower is not damaged (deduct that amount from the total $) but a little edge is beginning to creep in because my parents (or siblings) left a paver stone in their driveway for me to pick up with a snow blower! [angry]
Decide that this is not a good time to go back to the house! I need time to cool off. So we decide (we? my angry side and relieved side) to spend some extra time with the wounded tractor. Start it back up, turn the PTO on, no luck. PTO shaft still does not turn. Now I'm beginning to wonder: "Why did the snow blower engineers make the darn shear pin so strong?" Wonder where the darn thing is anyway. I know where the pin is on the hay balers. Hmmm. Oh well, have to look at the owner's manual when I get back to the house. Wonder if the PTO spline on the tractor is frozen or if it free wheels. It might be nice to know this. So we remove our mittens (don't want to get grease on them) and pull the PTO shaft off the spline. The spline acts normal (but that metal is cold). Hmmm. Start the tractor, engage the PTO, it turns! Now that's weird. Its turning but it must not have any torque. "Should I grab it"? "No, that would look like a really stupid entry to put on TBN, if I were to survive." Turn the tractor off.
"Now what?" Curiosity has now temporarily blocked any desire to strangle any blood relations. "Well, how do we determine how much strength the PTO is capable of driving?" Decide to reconnect the snowblower PTO shaft.
As I pick up the PTO shaft from the ground I see the head of a little black bolt on the ground. "Oh, great! Not only is something internally wrong but bolt heads are breaking off the outside!" Pick it up and look at it. Yep it has the three marks on the head indicating it is a hardened bolt. "Where did it come from?" Look around and cannot find a place for it. "Maybe it fell off some other piece of equipment. Anyway, might as well just reconnect the PTO shaft". Then I see something that all the rest of you already know (and have been yelling at the screen for the past couple minutes), the PTO shaft has a shear pin at the tractor end. Just past the female coupler and before the u-joint there are two plates, smooth plates facing each other, that are freely spinning. These plates have two matching sets of holes in them, that just happen to be empty. /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif
I walk back to the house a happy man. Happy that the engineers were very smart and intelligent, happy that the assemblers were not bungling idiots, happy that I just gained thousands of dollars back in my pocket (it was after all, mentally gone) and happy that I would not have to strangle anyone.
There has to be a less strenuous way to learn something new.
Finally had my first breakdown on the snow blower. Heard many stories of others and the constant replacement of shear pins due to picking up rocks and other debris. After clearing our driveway we decided to be neighborly (more seat time /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif) and help a couple others. Did my parent's driveway and while going through some 10" stuff the blower just quit. Scared the living daylights out of me. I'm used to shear pins but the PTO shaft stopped turning. Turned the PTO off and on, no movement. Won't repeat the details of what my original thoughts were but will summarize that I wasn't too pleased with the potential that something snapped in the transmission. Dejectedly drove back to the barn (after finishing the driveway the the FEL) and turned the unit off. Sigh.
Got off and started to walk out the barn but turned around and went back to look at the snow blower to assess what kind of damage there might be to it in addition to the tractor. Wanted to know how much money I might be looking at. Was mentally adding up the thousands and preparing my verbal tirade against the stupid engineers or maybe it was shoddy workmanship during assembly. Blood pressure was rising as I hand turned the auger on the blower. It turned easily enough, but occasionally there was a metallic clanging sound. Hmmm. Must be some slop somewhere. Seemed to come from the fan. No the fan does not touch anything. Turn it faster, its clanging more. Faster and faster (turning by hand) and then JAM, stops dead. Humph! What the ?? Turn slowly and its fine. Turn fast and it jambs again. Then my eye catches a little something down in the snow still in the blower. Start digging and it looks like it might just be, yes it appears to be, yep it is. One of those nice, twice as hard as poured concrete, round 12" stepping stones. A little scuffed up but still totally intact. Stupid $1.49 stepping stone breaks my $3500 snow blower!!! [angry] Those...those...engineers...humph!!!
Now I have a couple different emotions coursing through my veins: relief that the snow blower is not damaged (deduct that amount from the total $) but a little edge is beginning to creep in because my parents (or siblings) left a paver stone in their driveway for me to pick up with a snow blower! [angry]
Decide that this is not a good time to go back to the house! I need time to cool off. So we decide (we? my angry side and relieved side) to spend some extra time with the wounded tractor. Start it back up, turn the PTO on, no luck. PTO shaft still does not turn. Now I'm beginning to wonder: "Why did the snow blower engineers make the darn shear pin so strong?" Wonder where the darn thing is anyway. I know where the pin is on the hay balers. Hmmm. Oh well, have to look at the owner's manual when I get back to the house. Wonder if the PTO spline on the tractor is frozen or if it free wheels. It might be nice to know this. So we remove our mittens (don't want to get grease on them) and pull the PTO shaft off the spline. The spline acts normal (but that metal is cold). Hmmm. Start the tractor, engage the PTO, it turns! Now that's weird. Its turning but it must not have any torque. "Should I grab it"? "No, that would look like a really stupid entry to put on TBN, if I were to survive." Turn the tractor off.
"Now what?" Curiosity has now temporarily blocked any desire to strangle any blood relations. "Well, how do we determine how much strength the PTO is capable of driving?" Decide to reconnect the snowblower PTO shaft.
As I pick up the PTO shaft from the ground I see the head of a little black bolt on the ground. "Oh, great! Not only is something internally wrong but bolt heads are breaking off the outside!" Pick it up and look at it. Yep it has the three marks on the head indicating it is a hardened bolt. "Where did it come from?" Look around and cannot find a place for it. "Maybe it fell off some other piece of equipment. Anyway, might as well just reconnect the PTO shaft". Then I see something that all the rest of you already know (and have been yelling at the screen for the past couple minutes), the PTO shaft has a shear pin at the tractor end. Just past the female coupler and before the u-joint there are two plates, smooth plates facing each other, that are freely spinning. These plates have two matching sets of holes in them, that just happen to be empty. /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif
I walk back to the house a happy man. Happy that the engineers were very smart and intelligent, happy that the assemblers were not bungling idiots, happy that I just gained thousands of dollars back in my pocket (it was after all, mentally gone) and happy that I would not have to strangle anyone.
There has to be a less strenuous way to learn something new.