Uh Oh. Snowblower ate a rock.

[KubotainNH]

Ouch. Angle grinder with a cutoff wheel (or 2) will make quick work of it. That's unless you want to weld it back together like someone else mention.

 

[TMcD_in_MI]

Thanks for the sympathy, guys. I've done the driveway a number of times this winter already and I don't know where the rock came from - probably the result of a recent thaw.

I didn't mean to make it sound like there was a shear bolt in the hub that broke. There was a bolt there, but as xkbal pointed out, I'm sure it wasn't meant to shear, since the key is on there too. There is a bolt on the input shaft to the blower gearbox, and I'm thinking that is the one that was supposed to shear. It didn't.

Xbal, you nailed it. This is a 59 inch John Deere blower. In looking everything over, what I think happened is the bolt came out sometime, allowing the hub and impeller to slide back on the shaft to the point where the impeller was actually rubbing its backside against the blower case. With only the key holding it, the rock was enough to rotate the hub on the shaft, camming out the key and splitting the hub.

I can see I'll have to get myself a mini-grinder or something similar. It would have been great to use here. Drilling out the U-joint yoke did let me get the key out and the hub finally came off the shaft. Two hundred bucks and a two hour drive later, I have a new one.

Now, of all things, I am having an awful time getting the auger assembly to go back in where it belongs. It's like it grew a quarter inch longer and won't fit anymore. I called the dealer and was told that there's no length adjustment on the axle shaft, so I don't really know what happened. Maybe the case got sprung a little out of shape, though I've never hit anything with it.

At this point, one end of the auger shaft is in place, and the other is about a half inch from sliding home. Maybe I just need a bigger hammer? Oh well, I needed something to keep me busy today anyway.

Tom

 

[Craig Clayton]

I do not know the layout of the machine but I would check the auger shaft with a dial gauge to see if you have sprung it. A 1/4" will show up as 1/2" deflection. . You can make up a hommade deflection gauge with a cement block a straight ruler and a sharp eye. If the shaft is bent you can straighten it in place if it is a 1 piece shaft if it is a 2 piece I would guess it is coming out. 1 piece in place use a heavy beam cut to lenght and 2 short pieces of chain and a 5 ton bottle jack with the piston on the lower side. You may have sprung the whole can ,( blower housing ).
Craig Clayton

 

[Sumpter]

I guess I had better just be happy that I only broke the chain on my blower.

 

[kevinj]

One should pull all shear bolts and be sure the mechanism is not rusted together.

Some of my stuff has a grease fitting and others will rust up if not sheared on a regular basis.

Checking the shear connections is part of my fall start up or done in the spring on mowing equipment.

 

[acs55812]

One should pull all shear bolts and be sure the mechanism is not rusted together.

Some of my stuff has a grease fitting and others will rust up if not sheared on a regular basis.

Checking the shear connections is part of my fall start up or done in the spring on mowing equipment.

+1

I had a snow-blower that came without grease zerks, auger rusted to shaft and wife picked up a piece of ice---gearbox was the weak link in that case----when it was done being repaired it had zerks

 

[TMcD_in_MI]

I got that auger back in. The guy I talked to at the dealer, a salesman, was mistaken about there being no adjustment in the auger shaft length. There is a bearing at each end of the shaft and it grips the shaft by means of an eccentric shaft collar. By loosening the collar (a chore itself) the bearing can be moved down the shaft to shorten the overall length of the assembly. I moved the bearing a quarter inch and then it all went back together fairly easily.

Thanks to the drawing on the John Deer Parts website for letting me know the eccentric shaft collar was there. I had seen it while I was messing with the auger, but it didn't look very significant and I didn't know what it was. And thanks to the Internet for explaining how to loosen one. And while I'm at it, thanks to you boys too.

It's all back together now and I'll be using it this afternoon, if all goes well.

Tom

 

[defed]

I suspect this is what happens when you have a poorly designed snowblower with out shear bolt protection on the impeller. I looks very similar to my 59" front mount blower on my JD 3720. I think the fact that you have a key there means the bolt is meant for attachment, not as a shear bolt. I have not seen a shaft with a shear bolt that also had a key, may be possible but I've never seen it.

Al

i agree. i'm working on converting a 359 blower to a 59 blower (gear swap in main gear case), and from what i can tell, the only shear bolts are on the augers. from the impeller back to mid pto, everything is either splined or keyed and bolted. seems to me to be a poor design in that a major impeller jam is going to break something in the main gear box or the tractor pto. in a sense, you got off easy when that part broke?

 

[TMcD_in_MI]

i agree. i'm working on converting a 359 blower to a 59 blower (gear swap in main gear case), and from what i can tell, the only shear bolts are on the augers. from the impeller back to mid pto, everything is either splined or keyed and bolted. seems to me to be a poor design in that a major impeller jam is going to break something in the main gear box or the tractor pto. in a sense, you got off easy when that part broke?

There is a 5/16 " bolt in the input shaft to the gearbox and there's no key in it, so I think it is meant to be a shear bolt. Whether intended or not, it has sheared a few times during the time that I've had the blower, and weirdly enough it sheared just this afternoon when it caught a thick stick in my neighbor's driveway. My heart sank when I heard the bang, and I was relieved when I saw it was just the bolt.

That is the bolt that would have saved me $200 if it had sheared on Thursday.

Tom

 

[defed]

mine has keys and bolts in both. i believe that the JD parts drawings shows the same. curious if yours just never had a key installed or if there is no keyway?