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Auger issue

11K views 54 replies 13 participants last post by  Wazoo 
#1 ·
So I initially thought I had a slightly seized auger but now I’m guessing I have another issue going on. When I take out the shear bolt on the left side auger(looking at from front of bucket) the auger housing is hard to turn for about 10 revolutions then frees up. Put the pin back in and remove same thing. Seems like theirs a good sized gap from the piece that shear bolt goes through and auger. When tightened it pulls them together. A piece of concrete was hit from previous owner and did shear pin. Augers spin fine normally and make no noise? I’m worried if I use the blower I’ll hit something and that shaft won’t move to break the pin. Any ideas?
 

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#2 ·
if this is a Honda then take augers out. takes 5-10 minutes.

remove impeller pin
then remove 4 side bolts on both sides of housing. if you have a 928 you also have to remove 2 bolts on top of auger gearbox that hold the bracket.

then slide whole auger assembly out.

i bet the auger gearbox shafts and the where they fit into augers need to cleaned , reamed , etc. you can remove impeller and clean that out too and the apply antiseize grease to all shafts.

you can also inspect side bearings and replace or repack with grease while your at it. unless the auger itself is tweeked or bent ( which you can bend back with some large locking pliers ) they should run a lot smoother.
 
#3 ·
FYI I removed side bolts and sprayed kroil and anti seize in while spinning augers. Once i got them spinning free today their was anti seize coming out where the shear pin goes. Seems like it’s something with putting shear pin in and something being off. Does my pic look normal orangputeh?
 
#4 ·
Just don’t get why every time I put the shear pin in and take it back out it spins hard till I spin it a bunch of times. Seems like something with the gap between the auger and where the bolt goes thru. I’m by no means an expert on this stuff so all your help is appreciated.
 
#6 ·
It’s possible. I tighten both sides till they stop. Right side their is no gap and left side their is and the auger and bolt mount pulls tight. Maybe on the left I should just make snug. Bolt would basically be even to 1 thread tight, don’t know if that would come undone...
 
#7 ·
Shear bolts should only be done up finger tight. You should be able to turn them in the holes after you are done tightening them up. The idea is that the bolt carries the torque from the internal shaft to the auger rake at the point of contact between the bolt and the rake pipe. If you mash the auger pipe tight with the shear bolt, and basically squeeze the auger pipe onto the internal drive shaft, you are defeating the purpose of the shear bolt. You may also be deforming the auger pipe.

If you have some weird dragging going on now, you should probably disassemble the auger assembly and find out why. Maybe there are some burrs in the inside of some holes or some part of the auger pipe is flattened. You might just need to clean the iinternal drive shaft of old grease and crap, then relubricate it and reassemble everything. Guessing at what might be causing it will probably not get you as good an answer as actually taking it apart and seeing what is going on.

Make sure you add grease to the auger drive shafts through the zerk fittings while the shear bolts are out, and then spin the rakes on the drive sharts to spread the grease around. This is simply to keep water from creating rust inside the auger pipes and seizing them to the internal drive shaft. Also, add grease to the shear bolts when reinstalling them.
 
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#16 · (Edited)
Tough to diagnose this issue without pulling the auger rakes from the auger shaft. Really need to pull the rakes from the shafts, inspect the auger tube opening and auger shaft for any distortion, clean the inside of the auger tubes with a plumbers steel bristle pipe cleaning brush, clean the auger shafts with 00 Grade Steel Wool, wipe the auger tube clean with brake cleaner on a paper towel attached to a wooden dowel or screwdriver, wipe the auger shaft clean with brake cleaner and paper towel. Blow everything clean with compressed air. Apply anti seize to auger tube and shaft, and reassemble the unit. I torque sheer pins the same way I torque oil drain plugs on automotive oil pan.... hand tight plus 1/4 turn.
 
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#17 ·
:iagree: I think all of us agree that it's tough to diagnose this fully without removing the auger assembly. In my experience on several brands of blowers, once the assembly is out it's easy to compare the parts and see what is out of kilter, and then repair the culprit. I think @orangputeh is correct and the cross plate may be bent. Easy to fix that (hopefully) with the auger on the bench.
 
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#18 ·
It's funny you mentioned this. I am servicing my son in laws 928 that has the same exact problem with both sides. looking straight down on auger you can see how that cross plate is slightly bent out from him hitting something. The auger blade was also bent almost flat over. Pulled that back over with the assembly still in the bucket and was able to get cross plate almost straightened also using a pry bar.

The augers and impeller spun freely with the shears removed so did not feel it necessary to remove them. Not sure what the problem is with the original poster because of course we can not see in person.

The trouble with this gap is you can probably get a shear pin in there and force the plate over but they will break more frequently .
 
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#28 · (Edited)
I forgot to add, the springing effect also acts like a lock-washer for the shear bolt to nut, giving it the spring-washer/lock-washer effect because there is no room to install a lock-washer on the shear-bolt nut, the way the groove is cut out to hold the nut from spinning during assembly.
The older models used a plain style crimped nut as a lock-nut, they did not use a ny-lock type nut that many people use today. They more relied on the spring tension of the auger as a "locking" type device to keep the bolt from spinning.
A little trick I used to do to get the auger to closer to the nut holder hub was to use a vise-grip pliers and squeeze them together to get the nut started, then I would tighten them to specified torque.
Don't over tighten them or you can snap the shear-bolt rather easily.
 
#23 ·
So I initially thought I had a slightly seized auger but now I’m guessing I have another issue going on. When I take out the shear bolt on the left side auger(looking at from front of bucket) the auger housing is hard to turn for about 10 revolutions then frees up. Put the pin back in and remove same thing. Seems like theirs a good sized gap from the piece that shear bolt goes through and auger. When tightened it pulls them together. A piece of concrete was hit from previous owner and did shear pin. Augers spin fine normally and make no noise? I’m worried if I use the blower I’ll hit something and that shaft won’t move to break the pin. Any ideas?
That is perfectly normal for that gap when the shear bolt is out, it is supposed to do that.
The auger is "Springy" like a coil spring. It will pull together when the shear bolt is tightened.
I’m still going to pull it apart and look at it but my concern is that it seems tight for a few turns after I take shear bolt out on the left side where the right is tight and I take the bolt out and it always spins freely. More then likely something is tweaked I just don’t know what it is yet. I’m just worried if I use it with the bolt in tight it won’t break. It’s not worth breaking stuff on such a low hour machine if I can figure out what’s going on this summer.
 
#32 ·
Hi OP,
That picture was nothing out of the ordinary from all the ones I saw and worked with.
One thing that can also cause that is the sides of the Auger Housing deflecting outwards, warping with temperature changes, which is normal around here,They are designed for that, damage from being struck or jamming into a pile of icy snow and bulldozing it through it while going into it at an angle. There are many different things that can cause that. Our temperatures around here change wildly from day to day and that causes all kinds of distortion on everything, metal, machinery, buildings, roadways, you name it. We are used to it. We don't get gradual temp changes around here that stay steady, it fluctuates wildly here.
That is another reason the augers are designed to be able to "Deflect" and are "Springy". They have to be able to "Flex" a lot.
If the side of the housing is warped out, it will pull the auger away from the mounting boss, or flange, they give it so many different names. It will get pulled away as long as the bearing in the side of the housing is still bolted fast. If you unbolt the side auger shaft bearing from the side of the housing, you will be able to move it inwards to fasten it to the mounting boss easier, then you will have to squeeze the side of the housing inwards to fasten the bearing mounting bolts, and the augers will "Spring Back Out".
We had made up a custom "C Clamp to squeeze the housings together in some cases because they had warped out like that, and also on brand new machines that were like that.
I've seen elongated holes caused by non shear bolts,"Hardened" bolts being used.
They can usually handle ice chunks pretty well around here. Most of the problems were caused by either a scraper and skids set too high so that the auger would hit the ground too easily, and rip the teeth off of it, and we also have the "Best Roadways" in the country here, as the whole world knows of Pennsyltuckys horrendously terrible road quality with heaving lumps, potholes, curbs jumping up out of the ground, sewer inspection caps that heave up out of the ground and are struck, causing damage. "Out of Staters" moving into the area that never saw snow in their life before, and never used a snowblower, it was a real "Treat" watching the damage they do with snowblowers. That keeps us busy, repairing the carnage they do to machinery and automobiles.Most of their "Carnage" was broken shear bolts and destroyed Augers.
It sounds like you have personal machinery like I do age wise, the "Older the Better", and they were built to last much better than the new stuff. A lot of my new equipment is around 25 years old.
 
#35 ·
Thats what they look like after a shear bolt breaks and the shaft spins around for a while without the auger spinning.
If there isn't too much play in it, you can have some play, then just pack it with good marine grade grease before you put it back together. Otherwise you could be looking at an expensive parts bill for a new auger and gearbox shaft plus seal replacement.
 
#41 ·
@Snowfanatic
I believe the new auger shaft is about $70 on boats.net (not everyone has that kind of money to throw at a blower)
That might be a quicker fix, but then you could look at this thread for some insight to the gearbox setup.

How deep do you want to get into this? I have my latest gearbox parts arriving today; and I should be putting my blower back together today. Snow is coming soon for us, which is why I ask how deep you want to get into it.

Seems like the quickest and best bet would be to see if your left vs right side of auger shaft are different diameters/shapes (should be circles) and decide from there if you want it reamed out or just let it ride this winter and order a 50-pack of shear bolts and tackle the project in the spring.

Your thoughts?
 
#42 ·
So I putzed a little after work today. I got aggressive with some 150 sand paper on the left stub. Got the left side auger on and it spins free. Amazing for not showing anything their must have been something there. I have some burrs on the auger tube that I need to file off yet. Unfortunately like mentioned earlier in this post the auger tube got slightly indented prob from the block trying to pull over to the auger. There really isn’t much play but it is ever so slightly noticeable compared to right side which has none. I don’t want to buy a auger if I don’t need to but I’m not sure how much play is ok without doing any damage to stub over time.
 
#45 ·
Luckily It looks like it survived the hit and will go back together nicely. I debated pulling the impeller while I have everything apart. I probably wouldn’t have to as the gear box shaft didn’t have any rust on it. How big of a job is it? Also is it better to use grease or anti seize on the shafts? I was just going to anti seize the gear stubs and shaft that goes into impeller and call her good. Does it pay to locktite the bolts? Looks like 17 ft lb for the bolt with washer on the bucket what about the others?
 
#46 ·
Removing the impeller is not hard, especially if everything appears to moving nicely. Great opportunity to lubricate everything. I use anti seize AKA Copper Slip in old money. I took my impeller out when I installed my home made impeller kit to improve clogging issues. If I recall there may be a split pin / cotter pin to remove but it's all otherwise quite intuitive.
 
#49 ·
Got everything back together but snapped one of the three little bolts that holds auger and bearing on. Is it easier to drill out and replace screw or just say screw it and replace bearing bracket or whatever you call it? Also what are torque specs for those little bolts? I think middle one is 17 ftlb
 
#50 ·
I just tighten pretty snug. you can use a left handed drill bit and easy out to remove that broken bolt. watch a you tube video . 3 is better than 2 holding that bearing holder to auger housing.
 
#52 ·
Snug them up, but not so tight you snap them …. every bolt is different … the older they are they may snap easier? Its kind of a learn as you go thing … I have been around a long time doing this stuff, and once in awhile, I even snap one still. Even snapped using a torque wrench, as there is no guarantee.... as they say, **** happens.

I would definitely put that 3rd bolt back on that bearing housing, even if it meant dismantling it.
 
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