Snow Attachments Shear Pin for a Wood SS74 Snow Blower

[SteveInMD]

I found the newspaper at the end of my driveway under 17 inches of snow. Unfortunately I sheared of my shear pin on my Woods SS74 snow blower doing so. I put a bolt in there for a temporary fix, but I wanted to know the correct size and strength bolt that should be in there. This is the one attachment that I don't have the owners manual for. Can anyone help me out?

 

[beenthere]

A soft grade bolt of the right diameter will work for you. Its the grade of the bolt (not a hard one) that is important. They are a pain when they shear, but better than breaking something else that is much more expensive to fix.
Get the lowest grade bolt (probably the cheapest too) at the hardware store (if you don't have so much snow that the stores are closed ? ) but glad you at least have power. That must be a prized commodity on the east coast today. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[MadReferee]

What does your owners manual or parts manual say?

Some blowers use grade 2 bolts or grade 5 bolts depending on where the shear bolt is. Always follow the manufacturer's instructions.

Mnauals can usually be downloaded from the manufacturer's web site. Woods is no exception.

Woods snowblower manuals

 

[SteveInMD]

beenthere - the only reason I've got power is my standby generator /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

MadReferee - thanks for the link, that's exactly what I needed

 

[cny]

What does your owners manual or parts manual say?

Some blowers use grade 2 bolts or grade 5 bolts depending on where the shear bolt is. Always follow the manufacturer's instructions.

Mnauals can usually be downloaded from the manufacturer's web site. Woods is no exception.

Woods snowblower manuals

I just sheared the bolt in my Woods SS60 snowblower, I have downloaded the manual but under the parts list, it says "CONTACT YOUR WOODS DEALER TO LOCATE PARTS"

Does anyone know what size/grade bolt I should use?

 

[shaley]

SS60
See page 15 under trouble shooting, it says if the bolt continues to shear then use a grade 5.

 

[Rick Jay]

Hi Guys,

It's been a long while since I've been active on this forum, but I was glad to see my username & account was still active.

I have a Woods SS60 and here is content of a post I made here several years ago. I had to search through the archives and for some reason the HTML formatting seems to be messed up, so I cut and pasted it here.


Here's the e-mail I sent to Woods:


-----Original Message-----
From: Rick
Sent: Monday, March 03, 2003 3:05 PM
To: info@woodsonline.com
Subject: Web Inquiry from Woods Equipment Company

Hi,

I purchased a Woods SS60 snowblower last year. It's worked flawlessly so
far this winter and I am very pleased with it.

Anyway, I'm a bit puzzled about the hardness of the shear bolts used on the
snowblower. Both shear bolts are the same size, but the auger shear bolt is
Grade 5 and the PTO shear bolt is a grade 8.

Do I need two separate hardness bolts? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of
having them be the same size? If I can use the same hardness, should I use
Grade 2, 5 or 8?

I'm operating on paved surfaces and I'd rather replace an occassional shear
bolt than risk damage to the snowblower gear box.

Thanks,

Rick





The response from Woods:

Thanks for bringing that error to our attention, the correct hardness for
both bolts is Grade 5.


end of message.


So...they both should be grade 5. I believe Woods gets the drive line from another supplier and they must ship them with the grade 8 bolts installed.

~Rick

 

[BTDT]

Good info. Thanks for posting.

 

[WayneB]

Hi Guys,

Hi,

I purchased a Woods SS60 snowblower last year. It's worked flawlessly so
far this winter and I am very pleased with it.

Anyway, I'm a bit puzzled about the hardness of the shear bolts used on the
snowblower. Both shear bolts are the same size, but the auger shear bolt is
Grade 5 and the PTO shear bolt is a grade 8.

Do I need two separate hardness bolts? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of
having them be the same size? If I can use the same hardness, should I use
Grade 2, 5 or 8?

I'm operating on paved surfaces and I'd rather replace an occassional shear
bolt than risk damage to the snowblower gear box.

Thanks,

Rick


The response from Woods:

Thanks for bringing that error to our attention, the correct hardness for
both bolts is Grade 5.


end of message.


So...they both should be grade 5. I believe Woods gets the drive line from another supplier and they must ship them with the grade 8 bolts installed.

~Rick

I just went to my dealer and he pulled up the bolt for the told me it should be a 5/16 x 1 grade 8 bolt. I expressed to him that I had heard that the bolt should be a grade 5 and he told me he never was told that and all of their paperwork states grade 8. I think I will take this information to him and see what he thinks. I will put grade 5 in my SS-60.

Thanks for posting this information.

Wayne

 

[Rick Jay]

Hi,

As far as grade 5 or grade 8, I've put grade 5 bolts in both the drive shaft and the auger shaft. Originally, I was mostly concerned about having two identically sized bolts with different hardnesses. It just seemed that it could be possible to put the wrong bolt in the wrong application...plus I have to keep two different spares on hand. This way, I just have to keep one type of bolt for spares. I'm assuming a grade 5 would snap before a grade 8, which is what I'd prefer. However, I remember discussions on this forum years back stating that a grade 8 might actually snap before a grade 5. From what I remember, it was a "6 of one, half a dozen of the other" discussion with good points being made on both sides, but I don't remember if there was ever a definitive conclusion.

I'd like to reiterate that I believe my SS60 was manufactured within the first year Woods came out with the SS line (replacing the previous SB line). It's possible that a different grade is used with the SS74 than the SS60. Or it's possible that since then they've revised their recommendations, or made some changes to the design. I do remember back when I inquired, they were pretty quick with an e-mail response. Maybe we should all e-mail them again and see what their response is?

~Rick