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: