Snowblower Auger repair on 60" Lucknow snowblower

[Rod in Forfar]

The auger wasn't engaged when I slipped off an icy road and slid backwards into the ditch, hitting the auger full-on, though not very hard. The spiral parts of the auger weren't damaged, just the centre shaft, which was deflected almost an inch. Before I put the blower away I tried to pry the shaft back straight with a small floor jack and a large wooden block. The 2600 lb. jack had no effect upon the sturdy shaft.

I ran the pto up on the 35 hp tractor and it doesn't seem to vibrate much. Would it be best just to use it the way it is, get a new auger shaft, or get the original repaired?

Thanks,

Rod

 

[leonz]

Hello Rod,

Sticky, sticky, sticky. The combination of things may have led to damage to the cross auger housing bending the
cross augers bearing housings and damaging the inner races of the bearing and the bearings and the side weldments of the snow caster.
I would send it to the snow blower hospital as you may have hidden(expensive)damage to the bearings and seals of the gearbox and the impeller housings mounting plate for the gearbox.
The last thing you need is broken snow caster at the wrong time up there.

 

[cormier]

I would bring the auger to a local machine shop they will straighten it out fairly cheap. If you run it that way the little vibration it has could cause damage to the gear box of the blower and even the pto of the tractor depending how bad it is.

 

[Rustyiron]

Or the economical choice is (providing the auger did not impact the "fan") try to straighten out the shaft, even a little. Those end bearings on the auger should be "off the shelf" items @ >$20 each at Surplus center or even TSC and should be "self centering" allowing for a little mis alignment.
Without a pic I'm guessing, but with a little imagination, and a small "bottle jack" you should be able to jack against the bow, a little at a time, and get it pretty straight.

Now it's going to need to be pushed past straight, it will relax back to less than you "pushed" it, this will take a few attempts. Hillbilly, yes, cheap, yes!
Obviously you'll need to find the bend direction and jack or push against it, keeping an eye on your straps, 6x6 or whatever you use to jack against, but it's not rocket science. Just take your time. Use the big yellow "trucker" size straps.

 

[Rod in Forfar]

Or the economical choice is (providing the auger did not impact the "fan") try to straighten out the shaft, even a little. Those end bearings on the auger should be "off the shelf" items @ >$20 each at Surplus center or even TSC and should be "self centering" allowing for a little mis alignment.
Without a pic I'm guessing, but with a little imagination, and a small "bottle jack" you should be able to jack against the bow, a little at a time, and get it pretty straight.
View attachment 508581

Now it's going to need to be pushed past straight, it will relax back to less than you "pushed" it, this will take a few attempts. Hillbilly, yes, cheap, yes!
Obviously you'll need to find the bend direction and jack or push against it, keeping an eye on your straps, 6x6 or whatever you use to jack against, but it's not rocket science. Just take your time. Use the big yellow "trucker" size straps.

That's a good sketch you drew, Rusty. Move the jack about three inches to the left for the point of maximum deflection. It's less than 1", more likely 3/4" off axis at that point. Where it hit I can put the jack on the other side of the pipe and clear the auger.

I think you're right about the durability of the bearings. From a brief run at 540 rpm they don't seem to mind being slightly out of alignment on the left side.

I have the straps and the timbers, and even an eight-ton bottle jack. It's a blacksmithing job, I think.

 

[Rustyiron]

I think you're right about the durability of the bearings. From a brief run at 540 rpm they don't seem to mind being slightly out of alignment on the left side.

My point about the auger bearings was that they are slow speed, fairly inexpensive, and not a big job to replace if you have premature wear.
Leonz point about gearbox & fan issues is where you could spend some bucks if it took an impact, but I've never seen a blower's fan stick out past the point where the auger would hit it before hitting the back "wall" of the blower body.

 

[Working on Rust]

I had to straighten a snowblower auger where the center is 3 x 3 box tube a few years ago. It had about 3/4 of wobble and was making the chain tension uneven. We had it out of the blower anyway and set it on top of a I beam and chained down the ends and put a 12 ton bottle jack under it and jacked it up past straight and left it over night. It sprung back some and ended up maybe 1/4 out if round, that is straight enough for me.
Straightening augers is quite doable but be careful when dealing with jacks on round things, straps, and chains under tension.