Farm King snowblower shear sprocket problem

[Zick]

So when I first got this snowblower, it had a stuck (figured rusted) shear sprocket. I took the shear bolt out and hoped it might work itself free but no luck.

Finally decided to try and take it apart again. Wow, what a PITA. It took an hour of beating and finally an air hammer to drive it apart.

What I found surprised me. It was not rusted like I thought, in fact it was pretty clean. However, it is basically a press fit and has small ridges along the entire bronze area that you can feel with your fingernail on both the shaft and sprocket (inside).

Anyone know why this is like this? There is no way it will freely spin unless I sand it down enough to create a gap.

 

[Dutch445]

I wonder if the ridges were a result of friction after a shear bolt broke, and the drive side
kept spinning. maybe after some use, they wore into each other and eventually enough
brass material wedged causing the two pieces to lock together, defeating the shear
protection.
??

 

[Zick]

Not sure but the ridges almost looked machined as if it was designed that way.

 

[Zick]

Alright, so after a little emery cloth sanding I was able to get it fitting pretty good.


But now after putting it back together, it's way noisier that it used to be. I did replace one bearing on the end of the auger shaft.

The noise sounds like it's coming from the gear box teeth. I put everything back exactly how it came apart but the gear on the jack shaft didn't have anyway to adjust it's gap between the fan gear.

One thing I noticed is that the bearing plates appear to be on differently than what the factory manual shows. I tried flipping them around like the picture shows but it doesn't seem to fit that way so I don't believe the manual shows them correctly?


Took some videos

Low speed (easier to hear, sounds like metal grinding)

VID_20131221_155449_454_zps5e979d25.mp4 Video by Zick | Photobucket

High speed

VID_20131221_155505_602_zps39612c5e.mp4 Video by Zick | Photobucket

 

[doxford jim]

What year is your snow blower ? I too have a Allied/Farm King snow blower and it too has the three blade fan - hhhmmmmm. I have a copy of my manual I can send via email if it would be any help. It is a 1989 73" wide blower.
Have you opened up the gearbox at all ? Is your gearbox an enclosed one - if so you should have oil inside. There are level plugs/vents and I opened my gearbox up and cleaned it out when I first got the blower. The gearbox was dry, so opening it up to check paid dividends for me.
I have attached a picture of my blower - I added wings to make the effective cut wider (works well).
If you need a copy of my manual shoot me a PM.
HTH
Jim

 

[crazyal]

On my Herd seeder the bearing plates have shims so you can adjust the depth of the gear inside the gear box. They are just a paper compound.

 

[Zick]

What year is your snow blower ? I too have a Allied/Farm King snow blower and it too has the three blade fan - hhhmmmmm. I have a copy of my manual I can send via email if it would be any help. It is a 1989 73" wide blower.
Have you opened up the gearbox at all ? Is your gearbox an enclosed one - if so you should have oil inside. There are level plugs/vents and I opened my gearbox up and cleaned it out when I first got the blower. The gearbox was dry, so opening it up to check paid dividends for me.
I have attached a picture of my blower - I added wings to make the effective cut wider (works well).
If you need a copy of my manual shoot me a PM.
HTH
Jim

It's a 2010 I believe and it has a open gearbox with beveled gears so no oil. And I already have a manual from Farm King, but thanks.

crazyal, I didn't see any kind of shims with it or shown on the manual.

 

[art]

we recommend grease on those gears!

 

[Zick]

we recommend grease on those gears!

I don't disagree with you there. However, that shouldn't be my issue right now as there was no grease before and it wasn't noisy. I've also read that this kind of setup typically don't need any lubrication.


Oh and crazyal,
I was mistaken when I said I didn't see any shims. There was a very thin washer (probably a shim) right behind the auger gear. I thought it was a washer but now that I think about it, it probably was a shim.

Now that I know this, how can I figure out the correct gap between the teeth? I didn't see any specs in the manual.

 

[Zick]

Well a late update but the noise turned out to be more bad bearings. I ended up replacing the two other bearings on the main auger shaft and it's running beautifully quiet now. :jump:

 

[mswanson65]

What year is your snow blower ? I too have a Allied/Farm King snow blower and it too has the three blade fan - hhhmmmmm. I have a copy of my manual I can send via email if it would be any help. It is a 1989 73" wide blower.
Have you opened up the gearbox at all ? Is your gearbox an enclosed one - if so you should have oil inside. There are level plugs/vents and I opened my gearbox up and cleaned it out when I first got the blower. The gearbox was dry, so opening it up to check paid dividends for me.
I have attached a picture of my blower - I added wings to make the effective cut wider (works well).
If you need a copy of my manual shoot me a PM.
HTH
Jim

Hi, I just picked up the Allied 73" snow blower pictured below. Looks alot like yours. I know this is an old thread but if you are willing... I would love to have the electronic copy of the manual e-mailed.

 

[Dave M7040]

we recommend grease on those gears!

That style of open gear has been around for many decades. A bit of snow seems to be all the lube they need. Very tough!

I first saw these open gears used on blowers made by McKee Bros and also sold as JD blowers painted green.
Dave M7040

 

[Wyobuckaroo]

I suspect Buhler, Allied, Farm King are the same machine, depending on what quantity the wholesale order is for.. ?? ??

We got our Buhler 50" gently used and cheap as things like this go.. I pulled the shear bold out of the auger drive, slid the chain sprocket off the shaft and reassembled all with a liberal coat of copper anti seize compound..

This for every fastener I could reach to disassemble and reassemble with anti seize..

Knock on wood... This has worked well as it would be a pain in the neck to work on in cold weather..

 

[BWSwede]

I just stumbled upon this thread and find the OP's post interesting. I have a Farm King 84" blower on my tractor. The first time out last winter I picked up a good sized rock that made it through the ribbon and into the fan. When the fan hit it the blower stopped instantly. Unfortunately upon engaging the PTO drive just after this occurred I had a terrible racket in my transmission. I took it to a mechanic for repair and $6000 later the mechanic showed me where the PTO drive gear in the tractor transmission had two teeth broken off by the snow blower. When I checked the shear bolts (I found them sitting on the skid plate of the tractor) they were the proper size and grade. I also checked the slip joint held together by the shear bolts and it looked brand new, there was not corrosion at all. With the OP's post I now believe the parts that the OP found pressed together are the cause of my extremely expensive repair.

Blane