Sheer pins

[DMW]

The GC series is an "instant on". Lower your rpm to idle and engage with the blower lowered. Raise your rpm after it is engaged. Have the spare shear pins and tools handy. Pieces of wood and ice will break the shear pin. Excessive snow should just bog the engine. Raising the 3ph while running the snow blower can put enough extra strain to break the shear pin on a new blower. I let mine run at idle for c. 1/2 hour spinning freely to let the gears mesh after breaking several pins and it seemed to help a lot.

 

[tsteahr]

The GC series is an "instant on". Lower your rpm to idle and engage with the blower lowered. Raise your rpm after it is engaged. Have the spare shear pins and tools handy. Pieces of wood and ice will break the shear pin. Excessive snow should just bog the engine. Raising the 3ph while running the snow blower can put enough extra strain to break the shear pin on a new blower. I let mine run at idle for c. 1/2 hour spinning freely to let the gears mesh after breaking several pins and it seemed to help a lot.

Excellent Info. Thanks very much!

 

[irvingj]

M-F SCUTs actually do have a "clutch assembly" in the PTO engage mechanism-- but it ain't much, and there's no way to engage it gradually. It's called a "clutch pack" IIRC. It sounds like it's slamming in, but that's the way it is....

You can see it below, #12. Kinda like a motorcycle clutch.

 

[jpm1]

I buy CHEAP low grade bolts by the pound and if i'm real ambitious I put each one in the drill press and with the bolt spinning take a hacksaw and put ever-so-small a cut in the bolt shank. This gives you a bolt just like the dealers "shear-bolt" BUT. . . a whole lot cheaper. A shear-bolt is just a cheap "SLIP" clutch that doesn't reset it self. Oh by the way. . .snow blowers should have been renamed "Rock Chuckers"

 

[lungdoc]

I broke my first one the other day backing into a large hidden rock - worked like a charm. Interestingly what the Agro-trend manual describes as shear pins and what dealer supplied (10mm x 50mm gr 8.8) aren't shown on diagram and wasn't what broke. I presume these are related to shaft/gearbox, what broke is a bolt/pin (5/16 x 1 1/2 gr 2) connecting two greased surfaces in the cross shaft - obviously designed to break and allow cross shaft to spin freely.

I now have both types, still not sure where the first type goes as part isn't shown on owner's manual diagram, just listed in the accompanying parts list! Fairly sure it's at the blower end of PTO shaft but it isn't really clear!

 

[DMW]

I haven't broken the cross shaft shear pin yet, but have sheared the one on the tractor end of the PTO shaft several times. The shear pin is number 14 in the PTO shaft diagram.

*edit* if the PTO shaft wasn't replaced .

 

[lungdoc]

Thanks - I think I found it later. I have a different PTO shaft I believe as unit came with a separate manual (Comer Industries Driveshaft manual) but the principle looks exactly the same. What had me confused was that part #32 on blower exploded parts diagram is the same shear pin but isn't labelled in the diagram - nothing above part 31 has a label!

 

[MEhorseFarm]

I live off a dirt road and this morning the snowplow driver left me a 4" oval shaped surprise in the pile of snow at the end of my 500-foot driveway. I broke the PTO shear pin so I had to head back to the garage to replace it. It only took about 5 minutes to replace but like someone said earlier, you will always seem be the farthest away from your pins and tools when it happens.