Quick Hitches JRW snowblower questions

[terry13111]

I purchased a used JRW s50 snow blower without a owners manual. I can't seem to find a manual online either. I have a few questions I'm hoping maybe someone here can help me with.

1) what kind or weight gear oil should I use in the gear box?

2) how do I know how much gear oil to put in or if it's full or not? There is no sight glass.

3)what grade bolt should I use for a shear pin?

Thanks for your help

 

[seville009]

generally grade 2 or 5 for shear bolts. start with 2’s; if they break too much, use the 5’s

i use 90w gear oil in any gearboxes; just fill it to the fill hole (at least cover all the gears)

 

[JerryK]

I have a 78" JRW rear blower I used to use for my drive. It uses regular gear oil, but I put Mobil 1 75W90 into mine last time I changed it. There should be a plug on one or more sides of the unit that you remove, and fill until it starts to run out. You can make a shear pin out of regular grade or grade 5 bolts. I bought bolts that had a non-threaded shank close to the length of the two metal rotating pieces, put a nut on the threads where it needed to be, cut off the excess, removed the nut, then ground down the end so I could put a normal NyNut on it when I was going to use it. It is good practice not to over tighten the shear bolt. Using a bolt with threads going down into the rotating pieces just tends to elongate the hole over time. You can stress the bolt by turning the blower on at high RPM, and in normal use, they should hardly ever break. JRW is a fine old school blower.

 

[JerryK]

Also, as far as I know they did not come with any type of owners manual. Mine came straight in from Canada with nothing but the bill of lading. Most blowers like this were just made with normal AG gear boxes, chains, etc.. So parts should be avail just a boot anywhere. JRW stopped making equipment when Canada wanted them to upgrade their paint shop to meet emissions, and I guess they just did not think it was worth it at the time... maybe the owners were getting up in years... etc.