Snowblower won't work

[Bror Jace]

Scott P, we got 12" in our yard ... but the depth varied all over the place around here ... and the drifting made it hard to measure in general.

The Ariens got an amusing little workout of about an hour. Worked great. The 12" of powder (temp was in the single digits) flew for 40 feet or more. I couldn't ask for more.

Looking at what I wrote above, my machine had what you might describe as a 'manufacturing defect' ... depending how you define the term. The pulley (a double) on the engine's main shaft had to be slid out about 3/16" so it would better match up with the belts on the rest of the machine ... and not shred them as was happening. I bet if this misalignment was any worse, it would have thrown belts under load, probably at the time of engagement and disengagement.

The hardes part of the job was breaking loose the two set screws that hold the double pulley in place. I felt like I was going to snap my allen wrench in half!

--- Bror Jace

PS - Is it just me or do these things really build up a lot of moisture in the crankcase? New oil has only 1 hour of run time on it and it's already got some milky residue all over the dipstick.

Is it the cold, unfiltered air and the moisture which gets sucked in through the carburetor?

 

[Jon]

I'll probably never buy anything that isn't a Honda or a Toro again. I've had 3-4 snowblowers over the years. 2 stroke and 4 stroke both.

I now have a relatively "small" HS-35 Honda that's probably 20 years old or more, and it starts ON THE FIRST PULL, every time, no matter the temperature.

It's only a single stage, but it will throw powder 15 feet or more and slush about 3-4 feet.

Take a close look at the quality of assembly between a Honda and, well, anything else. There is no comparison.

That being said, a friend wore out his Ariens in just one season.

I also have a tractor mounted snowblower that mounts to my 19 horse Simplicity 7100 series. THAT sucker will throw snow 50 feet.

 

[Mike_dup1]

quote:

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That being said, a friend wore out his Ariens in just one season.

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I have never wore out any Ariens. 3 in 30 yrs and sold everyone in running condition, we get a hech of a lot more snow up here in upper Michigan than you see in Madison. My brother lives over on Lake Michigna, in Cleveland (Kholer area) and he hardly ever has to shovel. Over 250 inches some far this winter up here and more to come for sure. We are overrun with snowmobiles, a Wis man just got killed running into a steel girder on a bridge, he was speeding and hit it head on. 23 yo, dinking suspected. Thats the 5th snowmobiler from outside of area to die drinking up here.

I will say though, John Deera are not up to the task. Years ago, I got a 12 hp Ariens and a friend got the 12hp JD because it was cheaper. My Ariens is still in A1 condition and his JD is scrap except for the engine. Everything else could not take the day to day abuse of clearing 2 large drives. The 1st year he had it the base where the engine mounts cracked and had to be welded, Lots of other metal parts broke.

btw
Sounds like your friend is hard on equipment, don't loan his yours.

[ January 29, 2005, 07:54 PM: Message edited by: Mike ]

 

[Bror Jace]

Jon, I was thinking of responding to your post for the last couple of days saying many of the same things Mike did.

While I'm not going to dispute that a Honda machine is engineered and put together like no other brand of power equipment I've ever seen, I question whether they are worth almost double the price of an equivalent Ariens or Toro. Like Mike, I expect your buddy is/was hard on equipment or otherwise DNF'd the machine through a catastrophic ingestion misshap and/or failing to maintain it.

Mike: "John Deere are not up to the task. Years ago, I got a 12hp Ariens and a friend got the 12hp J.D. because it was cheaper. My Ariens is still in A1 condition and his J.D. is scrap except for the engine. Everything else could not take the day-to-day abuse of clearing 2 large drives. The 1st year he had it, the base where the engine mounts cracked and had to be welded. Lots of other metal parts broke."

I don't remember ever living in the UP!? We have a 1984 John Deere 1032. Most of the controls are broken or have been replaced years ago. Dad beats on the thing mercilessly and I constantly have to fix it. We replace about $100 worth of its parts each year for the past 3-4 years.

Oh, and the top of case where the motor bolts on just cracked at the end of last season. I wanted to see this strenghtened by 'shimming' it with a sheet of 1/8" steel ... but a local shop welded it instead. I wonder how long it will last?

And keep in mind that the older Deere 1032s are much better built than the more recent ones which had less metal and more plastic.

Mike, it looks like your machine has the onboard 12v battery. Like this set-up? I prefer the 120v starter and cord since I am always not far from an outlet. I like not having to mess around with maintaining/replacing batteries.

--- Bror Jace

 

[Mike_dup1]

quote:

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Mike, it looks like your machine has the onboard 12v battery. Like this set-up? I prefer the 120v starter and cord since I am always not far from an outlet. I like not having to mess around with maintaining/replacing batteries.

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Yep, this what attrached me to this model. I hated the cord. Once I fouget to remove it and took off, broke the plug-in on the machine. Never once had to pull this machine over to start.

Battery does go down over the summer months but a trickle charge bring sit back. I picked up a Battery Tended setup to use with my Honda ATV and will use on the Ariens in the summer. The battery tender maintains the battery and has special pigtail connnectors that mount permanently to the battery and have a easy connector.

These work great, cheap at 2x the price. They will not create any spark and will monitor the battery and keep it at full charge..

It comes with one pigtail but if yo buy more and connect them to al lthat you may want to charge, no clamps to attach to battery. Going to have the Areins, Honda Rancher and the Firebird wired up so the battery will always be good. They gave a gang chargers that will charge from 1 to 10 12 volt batteries. Just type "Battery Tender" in Google and you find all kinds of info on them.

[ January 30, 2005, 10:48 AM: Message edited by: Mike ]

 

[Mike_dup1]

I found the perfect snowblower for hard core use

 

[JTK]

quote:

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Originally posted by Mike:
I found the perfect snowblower for hard core use.......

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Those are cool arent they? Got a bunch of those style monster blowers in the Buffalo area. You can hear (and smell) them coming from a mile or two away! FWIU they use large air cooled 2 stroke diesels in the older ones. They scream pretty LOUD!
Joel

 

[Jon]

This year I've used my lil Honda twice.

Not for lack of snow, it's because we (my father and I) equipped a 19 horse Simplicity 7117 with a Simplicity single stage 48" snowblower.

That sucker will blow snow quite a distance, and let me tell you it's easier on the back than anything. It's got chains on it and so far it will go anywhere I point it, and that's through hilly wooded areas, etc... Pretty impressive, really.

As for Ariens - you might be right, my friend *thought* it was an Ariens but it was some red colored thing he bought at Home Depot.

 

[Bror Jace]

That monster is pretty cool.

When I was a kid, they had a similar vehicle where I used to work. It was parked (abandoned) in a warehouse. It looked like a blue dump truck or a Walters plow ... but with a double auger blower attachment on the front, but each auger was bigger than the ones in those pictures above so the whole snow blower attachment was about the same size as that orange beast's.

The only word I remember on it was "Duplex."

I never saw it run but the guys there said when snow-blowing non-paved parking lots, it would pick up stones and send them flying hundreds of yards. Evidently, the damage this thing could do in a warehouse complex was part of the reason it was not used much anymore.

--- Bror Jace

 

[Bror Jace]

I was checking the gear oil in our Ariens (specs above) snowblower and when I pulled the plug out of the front auger gearbox, it looked a little foamy and a little silvery.

The foam may be an indicator of moisture (hard to say) and the silvery stuff was on the threads so it may be something like anti-seize, again, I can't be sure.

Regardless, I want to change the oil in this front gearbox before I put the machine away for the season.

But what to use? The manual says to use a special Ariens lubricant. Wonderful.

I e-mailed them asking for a spec, and NOT a part number. Anyone make any sense of this? It's like ancient Egyptian lubricant hieroglyphics.

"Dear Bror:
We recommend using only the Ariens L2 gear lube, part # 00008000 or these equivalents. That is all I have.

1. Citgo EP Compound 90/AGMA 5 EP
2. Mobil Gear 630 (AGMA 4 & 5 EP)
3. Any AGMA 4 EP Qualified Lube"

I'd guess any really high-quality 75W-90 or 80W-90 gear oil (either GL4 or GL5) would do. The only thing that concerns me is corrosion of any brass/bronze parts which might be inside this little box ... but you generally only get that with really cheap gear oils.

--- Bror Jace

 

[Bror Jace]

In case anyone's interested, my question got answered in a thread in the Gear Oil section of this forum:

http://theoildrop.server101.com/cgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=16&t=001725#000011

--- Bror Jace

 

[Bror Jace]

I don't remember seeing a schedule for changing the gear oil in the snowblower's front auger differential. I think they mean for it to be a life-long fill and only topped-off as needed.

Sound reasonable?

Maybe ... but that wasn't good enough for me.

After a few hours of run time during the first year, I thought I saw silvery bits when I pulled the plug.

So, while "summerizing" both blowers this morning, I tipped them up on their front ends to drain the gear oil out through their fill holes. The John Deere is extra messy because the hole is on top. The Ariens has the check/fill/drain hole on the front of the case.

Even so, the Arien's oil merely dripped out of the hole in gobs like molasses in the wintertime ... took an hour for the 3-4 ounces to drain out.

Oil was very thick, green and LOADED with silvery bits!

Now, is this wear from crudely machined gears wearing in ... or some EP agent like molybdenum disulphide suspended in the oil?

Gonna fill it with Red Line 75W-140 ... but gotta get together with Bogatyr and 'borrow' a few ounces. Until then, it sits with no gear oil in it.

--- Bror Jace