Snow Equipment Owning/Operating Broken Gear Box on an Agro Trend Blower

[shadman]

Despite having the proper Sheer pins in the blower and the PTO shaft I managed to break the gearbox and broke the shaft in the gear box of the blower. A have all the bolts and reel drive shaft loose and ready to come apart but the fan will not release from it's drive shaft to allow me to remove the gearbox. I tried heat form a propane torch and some fluid film to work it's way into the join as well as I good pry bar but no luck. Any suggestions an to how to get the fan off of the shaft? The blower is about 7 years old I think. I'm so mad the sheer pins didn't do their job.

 

[shadman]

Here is some picks of my problem.

 

[dstig1]

You real sure there isn't a pin holding it in? Clean it up all the way around to check.

 

[shadman]

I can't see any pin and the manual does indicate a pin. There is a key way but no pin.

 

[tcartwri]

'That's a lot of metal to try to heat up with a propane torch. Do you have a welder friend. Or a friendly welder.

 

[shadman]

I have a friend with torches. Unfortunately he is away in collingwood at a ski race with his daughter. Hope to try aging next weekend.

 

[ff1221]

I would have to go look at mine to verify but I know Lucknow blowers they actually put a weld on the impeller as well as a the nut to make sure it doesn't come apart, so take a good look and make sure it isn't welded.

 

[leonz]

Despite having the proper Sheer pins in the blower and the PTO shaft I managed to break the gearbox and broke the shaft in the gear box of the blower. A have all the bolts and reel drive shaft loose and ready to come apart but the fan will not release from it's drive shaft to allow me to remove the gearbox. I tried heat form a propane torch and some fluid film to work it's way into the join as well as I good pry bar but no luck. Any suggestions an to how to get the fan off of the shaft? The blower is about 7 years old I think. I'm so mad the sheer pins didn't do their job.[/QUOTE


looking at the drawings for this snow blower from the online manuals The bolt has to come out first before you can remove the impeller.

I would remove the chute and spout and then go ahead and heat up the impeller with torpedo/salamander space heater and then use a flat end pry bar to gradually pry it out of the impeller housing through the exit hole for the chute.

If all else fails simply taking a sawzall to the exposed part of the shaft(after you remove the gearcase)
and then pound it out with a brass drift if it does not come out with the flat pry bar by pushing against the impellers disc.

it sounds as if they did not use soft key stock for the woodruff slots and everything simply froze together over the years of ownership.

 

[doxford jim]

When I wanted to work on my blower I had trouble getting the impeller to move on the main shaft. In disgust, I put everything back together but accidently left the shaft bolt a little loose. Well, you can guess what happened, the impeller loosened itself up. For some unknown reason I decided to check the impeller and found it loose and moving on the shaft. Wow - great, so I made sure the impeller came off and cleaned everything up and lubed it well. I eventually made replaceable blade tips/pieces where I could adjust the clearances. My fan housing is also out of round (common problem ???) so I got the closest I could and settled for that. To do a p[roper job and weld in a 1/8" thick piece to make up the excess gap, is a bit more than I want to tackle - at least for now.
My blower does quite well and I can chuck snow up to 45ft at 720rpm and around 30ft at 540 rom. I am happy with that as the blower only cost $800. Any repairs or alterations I have made probably total around $200 all told.

 

[crazyal]

I've always made it a point to remove the shear bolts during the first snow of the year so the joints can spin and remove any rust. I'll give the joints a good spraying of fluid film afterwards. Not sure if it makes a difference but it doesn't take long and it seams like once a year someone here finds out the hard way that their blower was rusted up.