Blew up my new snowblower

[WilliamBos]

I feel your pain !


I was on craigslist last week and I saw a 52" lorenz snowblower. So drove down to take a look and I turned the blower by hand and seemed all right and the price was right at only $650 so I decided to take it.

Then when I got home I turned it over and all of the sudden it got stuck well a peice of the gear box casting was stuck in the teeth of the gear box. so I needed a new gear box, Then once the gearbox was disconnected i turned the fan and it seemed to have a bad bearing so one broken puller later i had to torch off both the a gear and a bearing.

once i got that far i had to take the augers out and there bearings were rusted on so i basically destroyed them getting them off.

once i got the fan out I got a good look at the fan shaft and it was twisted and not so straight.

Rusty beat up snowblower = $650
all new bearings = $95
All new gears and chain = $60
new Curtis 211 gearbox = $200
new shaft = $?


so now I will have a $1000 + snowblower that is basically brand new but looks like a rusty piece of junk .

That is still not bad. And you got to rebuld it, with the ability to grease the bearings now. Our 50" Farm King was over $2K new, and the auger bearings are greaseless, no zerks on them. Give it a coat of paint, and it is NEW again.

 

[mike194]

someone donated some 1.25" shaft and my dad milled the keyway in for me. so I now have all the parts to put it back together. I just need to give it a paint job (orange and black).

 

[Wyld Bill]

Well This may be retubution from God but I just so happened to be cleaning up a big stack of papers from off the floor in my computer room & found a manual that came with the snowblower. I had completely for got about it. I was looking through it & found the parts break dwon that showed the gearbox. THEN on the next page a parts break down for the gearbox it'self!
I'm hoping I can call Monday with the part numbers for a new bottom case & pinion shaft & order JUST THOSE PART for quite a bit cheaper. I do know that the boxes are made in China or whatever so,...it made end up being just as cheap to get a whole new box. We'll see.

 

[Wyld Bill]

Just got called today. New box is at dealer,..it will be at my house on Monday.

 

[George2615]

Hi Bill,
Are you getting a new shaft, bearings, gears etc. too.
At least you will have plenty of time to put it together before needing it again.
Keep our fingers crossed that the bulk of winter is behind us now.

 

[arrow]

Bill,
See my post #14. If you have the proper grade shear bolt installed I don't think you can over tighten it. They will break way before you bend or squeeze anything on the PTO or blower shaft.

My plow blade is also off an old truck. As it is setup now I pull 4 - 1" pins and remove the bucket then hook the blade to the loader arms directly with the 4 pins. I'll convert it into a pusher blade by adding sides and skids on the bottom similar to the one in the pic. I tried attaching the plow to the bucket initially a couple years ago but that was a lot of weight with the A frame and blade sticking way out in front of the bucket. I only straight blade and don't need power angle. See pics

I am surprised that a 2615 can push a 7' blade in snow above 8". Are your tires chained?
Seems like a right stout machine to help you out with a 7 footer

 

[George2615]

I am surprised that a 2615 can push a 7' blade in snow above 8". Are your tires chained?
Seems like a right stout machine to help you out with a 7 footer

I've never had a problem pushing snow with either the bucket or blade.

No chains but do have 800 lb rear ballast.

I tried angling the blade once but when there is some heavy snow in front of it the tractor will push to the opposite way. I don't know how these other guys use power angle blades on the front of their tractors and still have steering. Apparently my front end is too light.
I've tried it with and without rear ballast. Makes no difference.

I've always had problem steering using float mode. The tractor always wants to go in a straight line. I tried adding front weight (about 160 lb.) and front chains to no avail. Only way to get it to steer while pushing snow is pick up the bucket or blade about an inch off the ground

That's OK since that's how I move most of the snow anyway.

 

[Wyld Bill]

Hi Bill,
Are you getting a new shaft, bearings, gears etc. too.
At least you will have plenty of time to put it together before needing it again.
Keep our fingers crossed that the bulk of winter is behind us now.

It's goning to be a whole new box,... so new everything just bolt it in the blower & go.

 

[Wyld Bill]

Snowblower is all back together. You can tell these things were put together in a hurry. I had to do some tweeking, shimming, & grinding to get the impeller centered correctly in the housing. It's all painted up, chain lubed, etc. back together & ready for next year.
I took out the shear bolt to check it out. It is ALMOST sheared but didn't quite shear off quick enough or easy enough.

 

[NIdaho]

Hey Guys,

You might want to do some more checking on use of Grade 8 bolts as shear pins. Yes, Grade 8 have a much higher tensile strength than Grade 2 or 5, BUT THEY ARE BRITTLE. I was always told that for shear pins you could use a Grade 2 (they are soft) or Grade 8 (hard/brittle) but never use a Grade 5 (you will damage something else).

I know that in a walk behind snowblower that I used to have, it had a gear w/ a collar that bolted to a shaft. It called for a Grade 8 bolt in the parts diagram, but it would continually shear off (running the blower into a bank with the wheels still engaged). I talked to my brother (who happens to be a Lead Millwright that keeps a LARGE sawmill running) and he said to change it to a Grade 2 and explained to me about the Grade 8 being brittle and NOT to use a Grade 5. I put in the Grade 2 and never sheared that bolt again! But I did sell the blower a few years later.