Woodmaxx Snowblower Shear Bolts?

[KanakaRick]

Can you post a picture of your shaft setup. It sure sounds like something isn't setup correctly.

As soon as the wife gets off my computer

 

[KanakaRick]

The manual says the outer drive line is attached to the tractor, and the drive line they sent me, the outer drive is attached to the blower, so all the melted water runs down the driveshaft and freezes the two covers together. So possibly one of the guys in the shop may have gotten the U joints confused with which side of the drive line it went on..... but the big question, would THIS make that much of a difference?

In another thread in the Kioti forum, I am having huge issues with sliding the detent collar on to the PTO driveshaft on the tractor. It slips in nicely until it gets to the detent part of the PTO shaft, and then I literally have to call a neighbor over so he can hold the collar back, while I hammer with a block on the U joint to get it to slide on the PTO shaft. It slips off with no issue, but it a real bugger to put on- it truly is a 2 man job. I am thinking both issues are related to "possibly" having the shaft with the wrong U joints on the wrong ends? I have no idea what else it could be?????

 

[canadianstrom]

The pto angle looks fairly extreme , could contribute. I dont think the outer shields freezing together would be the issue ( if thats what you meant) . it looks like the shaft ends are in the correct orientation . Maybe shaft cover was put on wrong but thats not important.
The angle would also make the install on the shaft difficult

 

[KanakaRick]

The pto angle looks fairly extreme could contribute. I dont think the outer shields freezing together would be the issue ( if thats what you meant)
The angle would also make the install on the shaft difficult

The freezing part is the least of my worries. When I am slipping the collar on, I line everything up so it is all level, so it should slide on

 

[Fallon]

I concur, the angle looks a bit steep, but not to bad.

The inner or outer shaft being attached to the tractor shouldn't make any difference, other than the freezing issues. The shafts are hollow & open at the U-joints so moisture can still make it in. Less likely if the outer shaft is uphill.

All modern PTO shafts are keyed so you cant put them together wrong. If they weren't you can get the U-joints out of phase, which causes big vibration & other issues. It's possible it could be setup bad from the factory, but not super likely. shaft phasing - YouTube is an old video & not super exciting, but very informative on the subject.

 

[atsah]

If you lift the blower until the driveshaft is level and then turn the blower on does it
Break the bolt?

 

[KanakaRick]

I cant do anything about the angle.... I guess A call to Woodmaxx is in order. Hopefully there will be someone there at customer service tommorrow

 

[KanakaRick]

If you lift the blower until the driveshaft is level and then turn the blower on does it
Break the bolt?

I didnt try that, as I needed it lower to blow. That would be a good test..I took it off as I needed to do snow removal.... I'll call woodmaxx tomorrow, and see what they think

 

[leonz]

A grade 8 bolt will break by shearing it has its greatest strength from a tensioning standpoint.

If you have a space heater or could borrow one you need to melt the ice out of that PTO shaft sleeve. Your entire shaft may be bent and the bend is just enough to shear the bolts.

 

[RNeumann]

From the photos I see you have a hydraulic tip link that looks fairly extended.

Another SWAG is too much angle on the driveshaft. I’d have to go back to my Jeepn’ days but their are maximum driveline angles. The other issue occurs when the two U joints aren’t at the same angle. U joints don’t rotate at a constant speed- if they are at different angles, it can cause different frequency which could also cause the failures. This to me is a SWAG compared to the frozen, backwards driveline. But I thought I’d mention it after seeing that top link. Good luck with the manufacture!