Off with the snow thrower but...

[cod 121]

Need some advice about the lift arm on my snow thrower.  When I took the snow thrower off the tractor and when I flipped it onto the extensions to remove the lift bar from the bottom of the thrower, I noticed that the pin the lift arm is attached to had worn down to just below the cotter pin and I'm puzzled as to what caused it.

 

Could it be from having the adjustment wheels too low or could it be caused by having the lift flag in the wrong hole for the lift bar?

 

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated as now I've got to find a welder or possibly drill another hole for the cotter pin.

 

Luckily I've got all summer to work on it. 

 

 

[Lane Ranger 11,410]

I read the manual this winter again on my Lawn Ranger's snowblower and  the drawing had a 3/4 inch shaft collar on the Flag end before the lift bar -which rides along it.   That collar raised the snowblower about three inches.   I have some photos.  That may be something you can do to yours!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[boovuc 1,090]

Mine does the same thing. Anyone want to tell us both what we have screwed up?

[cod 121]

Nice photos of the snow thrower and I've got lift envy!  For some reason the front attachment on my tractor seems to be slightly worn on one side and I couldn't get the thrower to lift evenly.  Finally I took a small section of conduit and placed it under the rear bar on the snow thrower to shim the one side and then it lifted evenly but never as high as in your pictures even when I added a bunch of washers between the flag and tube.

 

Somehow after looking through numerous snow thrower manuals I think what happened is a function of setting the adjustment wheels too low and allowing the bottom of the thrower to scrap along the driveway.  None the units I've seen seem to have adjustable "scraper blade" ( as on the bottom of a snow plow ) so perhaps I need to live with a small amount of snow on my driveway instead of trying to get right down to the pavement.

Tough lesson to learn but it never occured to me to periodically check that part of the lift and see if anything was wearing down.  I may look into grinding off the existing lift hook and installing a "new one" but this time I'll place it so the bend goes up toward the chute and just use a heavy washer between the flat on the the lift bar and the cotter pin.

[Kelly 1,033]

if you ask me it's a very poor design, I see it all the time with that pin worn down to or past the hole, I have seen washers welded on the pin so the lift bar will not come off, extra holes drilled, ext... I have about 5 blowers here right now that the pins are very worn, been thinking of a way to fix it but have not spent much time on it. 

[Joefrommi65 18]

Has anyone tried to oil hardening a pin in place to replace the softer pin in order to make it last longer ?

Edited April 4, 2014 by Joefrommi65

[cod 121]

if you ask me it's a very poor design, I see it all the time with that pin worn down to or past the hole, I have seen washers welded on the pin so the lift bar will not come off, extra holes drilled, ext... I have about 5 blowers here right now that the pins are very worn, been thinking of a way to fix it but have not spent much time on it. 

The more I look at it ( the pin ), it seems to me that if one were to rotate it 180 so that the part that wears now was pointing towards the sky ( as opposed to the ground ), you could still place the end of the lift tube in the proper position, and the cotter pin would still hold the lift bar in place.  I suspect that as long as the lift bar moves forward the thrower will lift although you'll see more pressure on the cotter pin.

 

Kelly, when you have a moment could look through you collection and see if you have a parking brake pawl that might fit a 418A tractor?  Mine has a slot worn through the middle and I'll need to replace it at some point.  I believe the part number is 106325.

 

Thanks