My Lorenz got broke!!

[lcrans]

Yesterday, after a bunch of driveway snowblowing to widen the snow banks along the drive, I needed to fill up the diesel tank, so I shifted out the pto, shifted into high range, and drove up to the house. After filling up, since I wasn't through blowing, I shifted into low range, reverse, shifted in the pto, dropped it to begin blowing the house parking area, and slowly let out the clutch. Horrendous noises from the blower area!! Thinking it was just the pto drive cover rasping on the safety cover (happened before), I got off and pushed the plastic cover back to where it belonged. Then got back on and once again went to start the blower......MORE horrendous noise.....followed shortly with a 'SNAP' sound, and then silence....! NOw, pto rotates smoothly, there is no noise, but nothing on the blower does anything.....the shaft out of the gearbox doesn't turn, the blower impeller doesn't turn, the augers don't turn. Apparently something in the gearbox is kaput....hopefully a key, hopefully not the main shaft. So Dear Lorenz is sidelined until the weather is nice enough and into a reasonable temperature range to do a bunch of mechanical investigation. Till then it's loader time, and maybe my neighbor's pickup plow.......

 

[JohninCT]

The augers and impeller don't turn meaning you can't turn them by hand (jammed up)?

 

[ccsial]

If you're lucky maybe some debris in the blower and the snap was a shear pin.

 

[lcrans]

The augers and impeller don't turn meaning you can't turn them by hand (jammed up)?

Yeah, as far as I can tell. I didn't have much time to investigate yesterday....had to park it due to another commitment.

 

[MFRED]

Did some melted snow just get between the fan & housing then re-freeze while you were fueling?

I've had that happen, nothing will turn & the drive pin will break.

 

[Jay4200]

Did some melted snow just get between the fan & housing then re-freeze while you were fueling?

I've had that happen, nothing will turn & the drive pin will break.

That's what I was thinking, sort of. Not ice, just too much snow. I wouldn't worry too much - I don't think you can break a Lorenz - those things can eat a car (I want one).

I've broken 3 shear pins this year - all three because I shut down the blower before it completely cleared out. I dug into a bank (same spot in the same bank, actually), then pulled forward and shut down. The blower was still full of heavy snow, and as soon as the RPMs fell, the thing packed up solid. When I started up and dropped the PTO lever, "Brrrrrrawww-SNAP!!" Dang.

Check the PTO shaft next to the blower, under the safety cover. That's where my shear pin is.

JayC

 

[lcrans]

Thanks for the responses. I'm hoping the correction is as simple as you think. I had been blowing/crunching up banks along the side of the drive in order to widen the drive....those snow berms were from plowing, had been there for awhile thru warm and cold days, and were pretty icy....the Lorenz generally does a great job of chewing up ice. But perhaps a good chunk got caught behind the blower impeller somehow. Regarding the shear pins: each auger shaft has 2 pins at the right end where they attach to the chain gears.....they are all good. The PTO has 2 shear pins where it attaches to the gearbox shaft....I checked those quickly, just visually, and they looked ok when I shut it down....but perhaps they are crunched. I hope that's the case!!

 

[loingrader]

If the shear pins look ok, call Lorenz.

Lorenz Manufacturing Company
185 30th Avenue SE
Benson MN 56215
888-843-3210

I've talked to a few guys that have rebuilt their Lorenz gear boxes and it is much cheaper than I would have thought. These are usually older, high hour units that have been neglected. Most Lorenz blowers last a very long time.

Rest assured that even if your gearbox is toast, it should be a not too pricey or difficult to fix.

 

[rbargeron]

At the back end of the pto shaft, can you tell if the input shaft to the blower gearbox is actually turning or if the yoke is just spinning on it?

 

[Jay4200]

Hey lcrans -

Any resolution to this yet? The suspense is killing me.

JayC