Hello, my name is Crack, I'm from Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada, and a retired Automotive , and heavy Equipment mechanic, I recently noticed bizarre behavior from my Craftsman 27 inch snowblower, it has been used maybe 12 ish times but this last time it refused to go into different gear selections, it has an H2 transmission of which I can't find any info on , the only manual I have is the original operator's manual which shows a shitty parts picture , it is a dual stage snowblower Model # C950-52546-0 purchased November 21 2015 from Sears Canada, does anyone have any clues or suggestions on what is wrong and how to fix it , thanks .
Craftsman dual stage snowblower 27 inch
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best of luck. looks like you got a machine with the plastic transmissions. some people have repaired them but they don't look like they are meant to be repaired. apparently some bearing go bad and cause it to fail.
Well that sucks, thanks anyway .
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yup. at least being a mechanic you have a better than average chance of fixing it. i would assume you have likely already priced out a new transmission. i think i saw $700 plus tax and shipping which just is not worth it.
Found it for $381+ on Amazon! Still more than machines worth. Briggs and Stratton product. By the look of it not made to take much torque or even nasty thoughts. Find a used blower with blown motor and swap. It’s even possible the bucket section could fit other models. Blowers evolve like any machine and bean counters figure out how to squeeze blood out of a rock. I’m curious to see the innerds of that tranny. It might be a simple fix but that engine is a Repower candidate.
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even then that is still $525CAD plus shipping, taxes and duty. if you watch the video you can see the internals and how he fixes it.
I would throw that thing away or sell the engine, wheels and other parts separately. Still in disbelief to see a transmission with plastic gears being sold in our country with extreme low temperatures. Amazed it lasted this many years.
Never mind, somehow I found it!Oh,I thought this was new issue. Where is vid?
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the plastic gears are not the issue. the bearings seem to be what caused the issue but i don't know if bearings were really designed to be used the way they are in this machine. they apply pressure to both bearings to engage the drive clutch. it is a bad design but it looks like it could possibly be repaired relatively cheap since i doubt 2 bearings could be that expensive. it will just be more labor intensive. might be worth it if he likes the machine enough to try getting another 7 year out of it.
Troy-Bilt 11/30 Storm 8.5/27 Craftsman II Husqvarna 580 BTSII Backpack Husqvarna125B Handheld Blower
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Welcome Crackman!! I too live in GP. I didn’t watch the video but donyboy 73 has a YouTube vid showing the transmission disassembly. If it were mine i would disassemble and see what the actual problem is. Most likely the bearings should be available and you should be able to make any of the sheet metal shift fork parts. If the bearings are sealed pry them out so the lube can get inside them. Mix 00 grease with a little gear oil so it’s thin but doesn’t leak out. and fill it full to the brim. Seal it back up and hope for the best. Watch Kijiji for a different unit before next winter. There’s a couple of not bad units there now and I’m sure there’ll be more as Spring comes and throughout the summer
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the video i posted is better than donyboy 73 since this guy actually figured out what was wrong with it. if you look at about 5:12 you will see the bearings and why they fail. the inner race is only allowed to move so far and the fork to engage the clutches applies pressure to the out race. eventually all the extra force will cause the bearings to wear and if they become sloppy enough then it is no longer moving enough to apply pressure to the clutch which grabs the gear.
Normally bearings are not designed to push sideways on the outer race. The gearbox was flawed from the start. Also looking at the wheels of the unit in the video, looks like there's very little wear on the rubber so perhaps not a lot of hours of use and it still failed. Going to also guess, maybe the lubricating oil has better properties for the plastic gears that for the metal ball bearings
Thanks , greatly appreciated
I'll take it apart first and determine the cause and action to take , thanks
Thanks for your suggestionFound it for $381+ on Amazon! Still more than machines worth. Briggs and Stratton product. By the look of it not made to take much torque or even nasty thoughts. Find a used blower with blown motor and swap. It’s even possible the bucket section could fit other models. Blowers evolve like any machine and bean counters figure out how to squeeze blood out of a rock. I’m curious to see the innerds of that tranny. It might be a simple fix but that engine is a Repower candidate.
An old retired mechanic with very little patience for engineering stupidity, what is upsetting is the fact of paying prime price with Sears knowing full well that a bankruptcy was in the air. thanks Bud really appreciate the help
thanks will check it out, I also tried a shop manual search but hit a wall big time with a reply of " DANGER do not open this site " , that was one of many tries to see how to get a Shop manual and still not found one , the nice weather is almost here ( maybe a few more months)😄😄 then I will attempt to take it apart and see , Thanks
I surfed thrust bearings and found a large variety. Watching the vid I didn’t see wether they slide slightly on the shaft. If they’re a slip fit I’d say there’s a probability that there would be wear between the shaft and bearings. At least thrust bearings would maybe last longer.
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