[VintageAriensNut]

Yup, looks great.

Fluid Film works great. Certain gaskets and rubber seals don't like it though. I just took our 2021 28" Pro apart today that has only been used 1x. There was already rust on the axles. Looks like little to no lubricant was used at the assembly plant. I used anti seize and gear oil on all the axle parts, outer and inner. I lubricate everything and clean the friction disc platter with brake cleaner. I still have the original friction disc on our 2007 1336, although I think it is not long before it needs replacing.

That was my last step right before putting the bottom cover back on, i cleaned off the friction wheel and drive plate. Before i did all this work the machine was so hard to move around i always moved it around by pulling it backwards. Now it rolls so easily.

 

[2AriensGuy]

It is very satisfying to use something that you fixed and works great now.

 

[VintageAriensNut]

It is very satisfying to use something that you fixed and works great now.

Now i'm on to the blower. My original is leaking gear oil, the blades on the fan were severely bent and one of the augers is missing the zerk fittings. This 1970 blower is in better shape but the blades are a little bent. I would love to get a newer fan from a 1974 that has the better design with the supports welded on but im not paying the prices im finding for one. I dismantled the 1971 which was a pain to get the fan off, 3 days of hammering with a 5lb sledge and tons of pb blaster.

Ruined fan from hammering the thing off the shaft.

Blades severly bent. I did install rubber paddles on the ends to hopefully help but since picked up the 1970 machine for replacement.

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Fan blade on the 1970 that is bent, but i think I can hammer it back into place.

1971 assembly that I will probably rebuild and reinstall.

Finally was able to locate the gear oil leak. Coming from the left seal. Im guessing the bushing behind this seal is also worn and needs to be replaced.

New 05503500 bushings and 1635-2RS bearing. I probably could of reused the original bearing but this new one was only like $4. The bushings were around $10 for the pair shipped, the original ones were very worn and needed to be replaced. I noticed when the blower was in the regular position the augers seemed tight when pulling on them, but when standing the blower on its side the augers were clearly loose in these bushings.

The only thing I'm not doing is repainting. I am amazed at how well the original paint has held up these 50yrs + and i feel if i repainted it wouldn't come out good and would end up looking horrible in a few years peeling off everywhere. Instead I clean everything the best I can. When i get parts machines i will swap out parts that look better, better paint, less rust etc. All the nuts and bolts and springs i soak in vinegar then scrub with sos pads and they come out looking really nice.

Nuts and bolts soaking in vinegar.

Some lug nuts and handle bar nuts cleaned in vinegar. Most seem like stainless steel and should last forever.

 

[VintageAriensNut]

I am really amazed how well these machines are built, they really can last forever with periodic maintenance. I'm going through the entire machine taking everything apart, cleaning and reinstalling. All the hardware including springs and cotter pins clean up looking great. The reason I dont want to repaint is i feel i wont do a good enough job and it's best to just leave it alone. Most of the paint damage looks to be from the machine scraping against things during it's 50+ years of use. It's nice having two machines to pick through the parts and use the best looking one. I can also see how crude they are put together, all the welds done by hand and different from one part to the next.

Going through the shifters.

I think the wood grip on the chute crank is a nice touch so I gave it a light sanding and stained it. I will probably apply a sealer of some type to waterproof it more.

Used a wooden skewer to hold the grip while staining.

Vinegar to soak all the hardware in over night. SOS pads to scrub the hardware after its vinegar bath. Stainless scrubbers for larger metal parts, they are perfect for removing rust from the metal rods like the chute crank, clutch and shift rods making them look new again. used a little brake parts cleaner to clean all the old grease out of the shifter handle. Ultimate compound to clean the painted parts.

 

[VintageAriensNut]

Moving onto the attachment I have new outer bushings and impeller shaft bearing. I noticed on the 1970 attachment the right side rake sits left of center and was up tight against the gear box. Removing the rake i saw why, it seems someone previously had broken a shear bolt and instead of properly removing it they instead drilled another hole in the shaft.

This really irritates me, someone doing hack work instead of doing it right. I probably would just leave it alone but since i have all the extra parts i will change it out with the 1971 shaft. I have the 1971 attachment all dismantled and got done cleaning all the parts to see whats good or not. I learned a few things taking the gear case apart to get the shaft out.

- The shaft had many scratches and gouges that needed to be smoothed down in order to slid off the gear case cover then ultimately get the shaft out. I used a good metal hand file and spent a decent amount of time fixing these areas. The high spots were around the shear bolt locations, roll pin locations and where the washers spun around the shaft.

- The bushings inside the case are in great condition and can be reused. I'm guessing the gear oil properly lubricates these bushings so they hardly wore down. i measured them with calipers and compared them to a set of new bushings I have, they are the same thickness.

Oil seal removed to check fitment of the bushing to the shaft, looks good to me.

This specific attachment has leaks at the oil seals. The other attachment does not have any leaks i can see so i hope to reuse those oil seals, i shall find out when i tear into it.

Gap between the oil seal and the shaft. This oil seal is junk.

The gear and the helicon part of the impeller shaft are in great condition.

Getting the roll pin out of the gear was a pain. It was actually cracked in half lengthwise. I dont have roll pin punches so i use old drill bits of the same size, turn them around to use the shaft side against the roll pins. This has been working well so far. i drove the roll pin out through the fill hole of the gear case, which turned out there wasnt enough room and the roll pin hit the back of the gear case. Thankfully the roll pin was already cracked so i use a big screwdriver to break it into pieces, I was then able to rotate the gear counter clock wise until the roll pin was lined up with the drain hole of the gear case, there was just enough room this way to knock the roll pin out.

I went and picked up a new roll pin at the local hardware store. All they had was a 5/16x2" so i will have to cut it down. i got this in case the other roll pin in the other gear case is also broken.

Since I have the rake assembly out this is a good time to remove the fork assembly and clean everything up. All the hardware and bearing flanges are filthy and rusted in need of a good cleaning.

 

[Oneacer]

You're doing a fine job ....

 

[VintageAriensNut]

I'm finding out why this machine was only $25. Opened the gear case and theres rust. The gears themselves look good, no signs of damage. Since i've had the machine i only spun the impeller and rakes by hand and the machine had no engine when i got it. It was clearly left outside for god knows how many years. I did drain and refill the gear case when i got it also. Going to have to do some cleaning and more inspection. The other gear case looks perfect inside and i would love to use that instead, but that means getting the impeller off this assembly. These impellers do not come off easy, lots of PB Blaster and hammering. I'm wondering if water got in by way of the paper gasket, there's odd staining on the metal where it sits.

 

[CCMoe]

Just proves, if it's leaking out, moisture is leaking in.

Great post.

CCMoe

 

[VintageAriensNut]

I think the Ariens directions for disassembling the gear case is wrong, they say drive out the helicon gear roll pin out using the oil fill hole which seems impossible, roll pin keeps hitting the back of the case. Instead I go in through the drain hole, use a 1/4" drill bit as a punch and because of the oil it comes out fairly easy. Good thing I picked up the new roll pin because this one was also broken like the first one. Punching the roll pin out isnt a straight shot, it's not lined up exactly so when the 1/4" drill bit wont go in any farther because of the angle i'll rotate the gear slightly then use a thinner drill bit that reaches in farther to knock it all the way out.

Drill bit gets stuck here because the roll pin is hitting the shaft. remove drill bit and insert a thinner bit while rotating the gear clockwise to clear the shaft. Pops right out.

Roll pin cracked. I noticed heavy scoring on it, hopefully it's not hard to punch the new roll pin in during assembly. I plan on going in through the fill hole.

 

[VintageAriensNut]

I find it interesting to see slight variations in some of the parts from year to year. Here's the fork shaft part# 10186. The 1970 is on the right and the 1971 is on the left. From what I can tell the added notches allows the clutch fork to rotate outwards a little more so it's not riding the jaw clutch when in the on position. If you never noticed thats actually a roller that the fork cam rides against. On both machines these rollers were frozen, hopefully after a good cleaning and freeing it up engaging the jaw clutch will be much smoother.

 

[VintageAriensNut]

I was able to clean up the gear case nicely. I thought i was going to have a hard time pinning the gear onto the shaft but it was very easy. I installed the gear so the roll pin hole was oriented exactly where i wanted it, in line with the fill hole. Once the gear is in place it does not move freely since it is locked onto the pinion shaft gear. Slide the gear shaft through the gear case and line up the holes. To hammer the roll pin in I utilized a nut driver I had laying around, turned out to hold the roll pin in place very well since you cant fit your fingers in to hold it. I ended up reusing the paper gasket and the oil seals, I filled the case with oil and will check tomorrow to see if it's leaking. If it's all good I can put everything back. If something is leaking it's easy enough to take it back apart at this point.

 

[Auger1]

Man that's a lot of work on an old snow blower. I hope it plows snow well for you as it looks like it sure will. Even though I don't use my old 10K series blowers much I still love the way they plow snow, HD for sure back in those days.

 

[Oneacer]

At least he will know his blower in great depth and understanding ...

 

[badbmwbrad]

You're doing an excellent job documenting the overhaul of this Sno-Thro. This thread should be archived so that it's easily available in the future.

 

[CCMoe]

VAN,

Great effort and documentation, I agree on it archived for reference going forward.

CCMoe

 

[VintageAriensNut]

No leaks from the gear box so I reassembled everything. The bushings and oil seals in this gear box looked perfectly fine so no need to waste money. The bushings on the outside of the gear shaft were worn so i replaced them along with the impeller bearing. Install is pretty much the reverse of taking it apart but i did snap a few photos showing how i got the pinion shaft back into the jaw clutch. I had removed everything from the blower housing to clean it. I started with the impeller bearing then reinstalled the fork cam, jaw clutch and associated parts on that side of the housing before installing the gear case back in.

New 1635-2RS bearing at the impeller.

Jaw clutch, spring and washer finessed back into place.

Slide the rake assembly into place. I used a board to keep it level in the front.

Have the fork cam in the "In" position. Push the pinion shaft through the bearing stopping short of the jaw clutch. Now rotate the jaw clutch to line up the splines on the shaft.

Rotate the fork cam to the "Out" position to bring the jaw clutch onto the pinion shaft. Now you can finish pushing the assembly into place and install the bearing supports and bushings on the sides of the housing.

Reinstalled the wooden grip I had stained.

For over 50yrs old i think the machine looks great. Since doing this work the machine rolls noticably easier when pushing it around and now the impeller does spin noticably easier by hand. I'm thinking this allow the engine to work more efficiently.

I take care of all my equipment because I want it to last. I'm cheap so i buy everything used, take care of it, then later on down the road if i decide to sell it i can get my money back. With this snowblower i actually made money, i bought 3 of them so far, used the best parts, then sell the rest.

The only thing i plan on painting is inside the chute where its worn and rusted. Other than that i don't feel I can do a better job than what is already on there.

 

[Ziggy65]

Great job on the rebuild of the machine and the detailed thread with lot's of pics.
Hopefully you get some snow and can post some pics of it blowing the white stuff.

 

[CCMoe]

Looks great, nice details.

CCMoe

 

[VintageAriensNut]

I decided to run the machine for a few to check everything out. This is the gearbox that had rust in it so after running it I changed the gear oil again to inspect it and thankfully it was perfectly clean. Good thing I came across the Ariens 10000- Series Parts and Repair Manual previously because it details how to drain and refill the gear box. Without it i would of just poured oil in the top hole until it started coming out then called it a day, which is wrong. I'm sure most know how to fill the gear oil but if you dont i have some photos i took just now.

Remove bottom drain plug with open ended wrench, I believe it's a 7/16, and drain oil. Tip the machine back on its handlebars. I used a block of wood because I didnt want it resting on my clutch handle.

Remove top drain also.

Pour oil in top drain plug hole until it starts coming out the bottom hole. Reinstall drain plugs and tighten with 7/16 open ended wrench.

I just use Super tech 75w90 because it is inexpensive and I was always refilling it with the previous leaky oil seals.

 

[VintageAriensNut]

I'm done with the tractor and attachment. I replaced the broken sliding fork so now neutral works properly and replaced the faulty gear shaft so now the rakes fit properly. I disassembled the entire machine to clean every part and nut and bolt and put it all back together. The only parts that broke while doing this was the roll pin holding the gear to the shaft in the gear case and I stripped one of the nuts on the bearing flange on the disc bracket and had to drill it out. The bought a replacement roll pin at the hardware store and cut it to size and i had spare bearing flanges to use. I replaced all the bearings and most of the bushings.

Now I decided to move on to the engine, 7hp Tecumseh HSK70. This wont be a complete rebuild but more of a thorough cleaning and painting, maybe new gaskets. I already rebuilt the carb last year so that is done. I took a head bolt off the other day and soaked it in vinegar and it came out looking new so this is what I'll do to all the visible bolts and nuts. I already ran into my first problem removing the rest of the head bolts, one was stripped. Easy fix though. I'm deciding what paint to use, either a gloss or a satin black. Also debating on buying and installing the original stickers or have no stickers. The old stickers are faded wont look good with a new paint job.