Bearing is gone from an Agro-Trend 6 ft snowblower

   / Bearing is gone from an Agro-Trend 6 ft snowblower #1  

rogerius

Silver Member
Joined
Apr 10, 2010
Messages
234
Location
ON, Canada
Tractor
Kubota L3940HST
We got 2' of heavy snow over the weekend and unfortunately my snowblower left me down. It's a 6ft over 10years old unit made by a company in Ontario, Agro-Trend. The bearing supporting the cross shaft coming from the gear box shared in pieces. The only part left was the outside ring of the bearing.
I was looking in the manual for p/n but they give the own part number for that bearing. Calling them didn't help, as they said to go to the dealer. Calling the dealer was a shock, they ask $150 for it so I measured the shaft and the outside bearing ring and I was able to find one online for $12. Cross my finger that it's the correct one and no more snow will come this week.
Anybody had something similar? Any tip in installing it? I see it's a bearing with a collar which need to be located on the shaft after everything is in the right spot. Surprised to see that is an encapsulate style which doesn't need maintenance. Here are a few pictures.

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1678190507081.png
 
   / Bearing is gone from an Agro-Trend 6 ft snowblower #2  
Sounds like a cheap bearing. There were lots of those floating around 10/20 years ago when it was popular to compete on price instead of quality. Check for a known good brand of bearng and you will likely find that there are good ones for nominal difference in price. And will easily last several times as long. To install, it should be a perfect slip fit if the shaft and outer surface are good. If not, clean and polish. You can tap on the inner race to force it on, but generally not the outer.

Bearings can be ordered with with seals or not....or even sealed on one side. Check McMaster-Carr.
If you want to make it serviceable, pop the seal off and re-grease. For shielded bearings, an alternative is to pop the shield off and install a zerk if there is a place to do so.

If you have other shafts you may want to check them. It was common for the cheap bearings to also skimp on grease quantity and type.. If a cheap shielded bearing is singing & caught in time, you can get a couple more hours out of it with a hypodermic syringe and some 90 wt gear oil. That trick works for rubber-encased steering knuckles, too.

Usually the bearings in the right angle gearbox are better quality and have better lube. But worth a look. If the snowblower design is otherwise good, consider replacing all the bearings with known good ones.
Luck,
rScotty
 
   / Bearing is gone from an Agro-Trend 6 ft snowblower #3  
I have the exact same snow blower. Its 17/18 years old now. I didn't have that aux shaft bearing go bad yet but I did have the Pt-21 idler sprocket go bad in 2013. I just went to the John Deere dealership where I purchased the snow blower and got a new sprocket. At that time it was $24. Not expensive at all. I think I took the old one with me and they matched it up with something they had on hand. The John Deere pt # is PM20601510. That particular Pt18 is a self aligning ball bearing (non greasable) . That is the reason it is encapsulated , the outer race has radiused corners and the capture plates contact the radiuses. When it goes bad I will probably do the same thing that I did with the idler sprocket. Since we are talking about this particular snow blower here are some items and modifications I have done. I have only changed the gear box oil once, really milky. When new, the impeller kept wanting to loosen up. Several bolt changes, re-tapping and maybe some Loctite. Now it does not loosen up. The dealer sold me a mickey mouse hydraulic rotator for the shoot. I eventually got it to work with several changes. I mounted two .50" X 2.0" X approx. 8.0" skid shoes on the bottom of the blower to keep it from digging in. They are spaced with the rear wheel center line. I added 2 paddles to the center section of the auger, just like the factory ones, to increase the amount of snow into the impeller. I also lowered the snow blower by adding new mounting blocks above the original ones. My three point on the tractor just would not let the snow blower go down low enough. When coming from the road to the driveway the blower would raise up and leave a ridge of higher snow. The drive chain and auger sprocket are starting to wear. I took the snow blower off 4 days ago and put on the winch so I could go and skid some logs. And guess what we got maybe 6" of snow last night. I'll just back drag the driveways maybe. The ground is really soft right now and the snow blower will act more like a rototiller that a snow blower. What was your original question? LOL. :ROFLMAO:
 
   / Bearing is gone from an Agro-Trend 6 ft snowblower #5  
Bearings are cheap. Buy a good quality bearing from a bearing supplier and keep it greased if you want it to last longer.

It's a common bearing, Measure the shaft size or take the assembly in. Should have a part number stamped on the bearing somewhere.
 
   / Bearing is gone from an Agro-Trend 6 ft snowblower #6  
I have the exact same snow blower. Its 17/18 years old now. I didn't have that aux shaft bearing go bad yet but I did have the Pt-21 idler sprocket go bad in 2013. I just went to the John Deere dealership where I purchased the snow blower and got a new sprocket. At that time it was $24. Not expensive at all. I think I took the old one with me and they matched it up with something they had on hand. The John Deere pt # is PM20601510. That particular Pt18 is a self aligning ball bearing (non greasable) . That is the reason it is encapsulated , the outer race has radiused corners and the capture plates contact the radiuses. When it goes bad I will probably do the same thing that I did with the idler sprocket. Since we are talking about this particular snow blower here are some items and modifications I have done. I have only changed the gear box oil once, really milky. When new, the impeller kept wanting to loosen up. Several bolt changes, re-tapping and maybe some Loctite. Now it does not loosen up. The dealer sold me a mickey mouse hydraulic rotator for the shoot. I eventually got it to work with several changes. I mounted two .50" X 2.0" X approx. 8.0" skid shoes on the bottom of the blower to keep it from digging in. They are spaced with the rear wheel center line. I added 2 paddles to the center section of the auger, just like the factory ones, to increase the amount of snow into the impeller. I also lowered the snow blower by adding new mounting blocks above the original ones. My three point on the tractor just would not let the snow blower go down low enough. When coming from the road to the driveway the blower would raise up and leave a ridge of higher snow. The drive chain and auger sprocket are starting to wear. I took the snow blower off 4 days ago and put on the winch so I could go and skid some logs. And guess what we got maybe 6" of snow last night. I'll just back drag the driveways maybe. The ground is really soft right now and the snow blower will act more like a rototiller that a snow blower. What was your original question? LOL. :ROFLMAO:
Hmmm... that's funny. It reminds me of our old hand axe by the splitting stump. That axe is still going strong after 3 new handles and one new head.
rScotty
 
   / Bearing is gone from an Agro-Trend 6 ft snowblower #7  
You need the bolt size, bolt circle, shaft size.
 
   / Bearing is gone from an Agro-Trend 6 ft snowblower #8  
Whatever you get, make sure it has a grease fitting on it so you can inject grease into it. My Lucknow has the same outboard bearings but tey have grease fittings on them.
 
   / Bearing is gone from an Agro-Trend 6 ft snowblower #9  
Hello Rogerius,

Please do not yell, the photo image you were so kind in providing indicates sadly the cross shaft appears to be damaged and needs to be replaced.

The bearing flangette item number 18 is all one assembly.

The machined end of the cross shaft which is attached to the bearing flangette item number 18 which is a slip fit bearing is damaged from heat and it will not work.





The roller chain item number 20 which is a 50 inch long(127 centimeters) #50 roller chain with a #50 master link and the idler sprocket item 21 which is the idler sprocket are most likely damaged and may need to be replaced.




Item number 23 which is the cross shaft will need to be replaced as it is all one piece.

I sincerely hope the gearbox stub shaft is undamaged as the cross shaft simply slips over the gearbox stub shaft to install it. The cross shaft is held in place by the bearing flangette.

To install the new cross shaft the bearing flangette must be removed and the old cross shaft removed by pulling it forward to allow it to be dropped down to be removed and the new one installed and then the bearing flangette is installed.

The repair should not take long as the snow blower should be tipped over to expose the cross shaft to allow you to remove it after the bearing flangette is removed after you remove the three nuts holding it in place.



The parts you will need are the cross shaft which comes in four width sizes and the part numbers are
4010-01
4010-04
4010-07
4010-10

I do not know which width snow blower you have so you will have to ask the Agro Trend dealer which cross shaft corresponds to your snow blower model.

The roller chain and sprockets are #50 size which you can buy anywhere they sell roller chain.
The replacement #50 roller chain is 50 inches long (127 cemtineters), it requires one #50 connecting link and having spare connecting links is always a good idea.

You probably do not need new idler sprocket item number 5401-0401, but you need the complete item 18 bearing flangette part number 5415-1205.
 

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