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13 year old Ariens Pro-32

7K views 16 replies 9 participants last post by  JJG723 
#1 ·

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#2 · (Edited)
There are a handful of issues on that vintage that bother me. The chute lock is temperamental and the original cable was prone to failure. Ariens made an update kit for about $40 that upgrades the cable and reduces the wear on the interlock. The original cable is a stiff plastic sleeve, the upgraded one has a metal shield with a rubberized covering.

The second issue is that the axle isnt ball bearing, it runs through a couple of flanges and someone at Ariens thought nylon bushings would make a great wear surface (they don't) so they are prone to wearing out. Doesn't seem to cause any issues other than about 1/16" of axle slop.

Ariens also released a pinion shaft anti-rotation kit for that series so see if its been installed. Its a plate and a hitch pin that gets installed on the left hand side behind the wheel. If you just see some bolt threads sticking out then it hasn't had a kit installed. The kit is easy to install and is actually covered under a mandatory recall. Without it the original hitch pin can come out allowing the shaft to rotate and wear into the frame. You'd have to put some high miles on it for that to happen though even without the kit.

Lastly when the 926s came out they had major problems with premature belt rotting (supplier issue-long since resolved) and alignment. They switched to a more aggressive (grippy) belt for the drive that solved most of the jumping problems and released a dual belt upgrade kit for the auger to reduce wear so i'd look for it. If its still a single auger belt i'd recommend upgrading it at some point. That kit is about $60 but comes complete with a new auger cable, pulleys and two new belts.

Other than that they're decent machines. Selling points are the key start and the biggest engine Tecumseh made for walk behind snow blower use. Price-well in a perfect world, if it has no rust, i'd say its worth as much as a grand. Most people would probably expect to pay less than half of that because its "old".
 
#5 ·
It looks like the inside of the chute has been painted black, maybe dealing with worn paint.

For around here, I think the $500-750 range would be reasonable. It looks to me like it's in good shape overall, even with the chute being painted.
 
#11 · (Edited)
Thank you for the info and my apologies. This is actually an Ariens Pro-36 not the 32. I have a 32 of around the same vintage as this one at one of my church buildings and it runs well. The only issue with it is that was the differential release lever (bicycle brake handle I call it) but that was a common issue on these. This 36 inch does have dual auger belts and I will look closer at the chute control. When I tested it, it worked great. FYI this place is a repair facility, one I have been going to for over 25 years and trust the owner of it. What you see in the background are several weeks worth of equipment pending repairs, and equipment that has been repaired pending customer pick up. He keeps it clean and organized and doesn't keep scrap stuff around. I didn't get very good photos, so what you don't see are the oogles of Toros and craftsmans around pending repair and pick up. This is at an Ace Hardware so he is forced to sell Toro, but also sells Honda products. He used to be a JD dealer. He's not allowed to be an Ariens dealer (due to the agreement with Ace/Toro/Honda or something like that) but really likes them.
 
#13 ·
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