Unbelieveable - small rant on snowblower

[dmacneil]

You still have both boxes? Enough parts from both to make one good one then?

Doesn't resolve your issues, but a cheaper fix for the blower if you've got the time. Perhaps sell and buy another.

 

[radioman]

Interesting -- just judging from your pics - last year gearbox was looks like a defective or weak metal shaft. this year gearbox has casing failure and looks cheap. your shaft looks pretty good but too shiny. . Anyway is it possible that your blower is on cockeyed ? or one of your 3 pt lift arms have too much movement ? Was the chainstay on tight ? I wonder if there was a angle issue here, nothing wrong with your equipment instead? Sorry for these questions - we are just simply not there to see the whole thing.

 

[StrangeRanger]

Interesting -- just judging from your pics - last year gearbox was looks like a defective or weak metal shaft. this year gearbox has casing failure and looks cheap. your shaft looks pretty good but too shiny. . Anyway is it possible that your blower is on cockeyed ? or one of your 3 pt lift arms have too much movement ? Was the chainstay on tight ? I wonder if there was a angle issue here, nothing wrong with your equipment instead? Sorry for these questions - we are just simply not there to see the whole thing.

Exactly what I was thinking. I'm no metallurgist, but I thought both the shaft and case looked cheezy.
The blower was level, I actually put a level on it and adjust the side links until level. And there's really no play in them. The drawbars are tight enough too, maybe an 3/4 - 1" movement to either side. Just for some give.

I don't know squat about building gearboxes but yes, I'm going to try to rebuild to have a, god forbid, spare. I was unsure of the first one until last night because I didn't want to move 2 tons of wood stove pellets to get to it. Forgot it was on that particular shelf when I stacked the pellets

I'm actually off to the hardware store to get a narrow wall 13mm socket to crack the gearboxes open. There's 4 nuts on the boxes that are impossible to get to w/ a wrench or standard socket. Grrr...

Wish me luck

 

[638]

Looks like a key in the input shaft. Can I assume that the shear pin is on the other end of the drive shaft ?

 

[StrangeRanger]

638 & Kubotafan you're right. It is a keyed shaft w/ a shear bolt on the tractor end. Wicked PITA setup.

Had time to split open the gearbox last night and *&^(%! the same thing happened as last year's! The keyed shaft that the PTO attaches to and drives the fan DIRECTLY broke. So I can't even rebuild last year's gearbox.

I called for replacement parts and replacing the shaft would be about half the cost of a new gearbox. But it would also be 4-6 wks to get a new shaft! That I obviously can not do.

One other little tid-bit, and I'm not really inferring anything here, but I found it interesting that my Comer (Italian) designed gearbox has a big ole MADE IN CHINA stamp on it.

Guess I suck it up and hope it lasts this year. But I have that sinking feeling...

For sale: 60" snowblower w/ low hours and new gearbox

 

[slowzuki]

You could get a local machine shop to make you up a high quality shaft. Not sure of the cost, probably 100-250$

 

[StrangeRanger]

A gentleman at Comer's US office was nice enough to email me. He informed me that neither the US or Italy office was able to find a spec sheet on this particular gearbox. But he did inform me that since it is a 1:1 ratio that it is definitely rated for 15HP @ 540 rpm. So to end this long saga basically my dealer hosed me by recommending this blower for my tractor. I'm set up to fail again. Grrr...

 

[Spudland_Dave]

Reading thru this, I would look into the fan being correctly balanced....I know some of the cheaper (**cough**Meteor**cough**) blowers dont balance their fans and similar things have been reported....the excessive vibrations caused by the improperly or NON balanced fan will literally shake & break things apart.

 

[StrangeRanger]

Reading thru this, I would look into the fan being correctly balanced....I know some of the cheaper (**cough**Meteor**cough**) blowers dont balance their fans and similar things have been reported....the excessive vibrations caused by the improperly or NON balanced fan will literally shake & break things apart.

I thought of that Dave so I did check it. And yes, it was not balanced. It wasn't too bad, but I did add some small tire weights and balanced it. My buddy owns a repair shop and we rigged up a jig to hold it on his wheel balancer, worked pretty slick actually.

 

[Spudland_Dave]

I dunno what to tell you then....If I were in your shoes I'd ditch the meteor and shop for a Blizzard or Pronovost.....