cod 117 #1 Posted July 31, 2014 Last winter I managed to wear the end of the lift pin on my snow thrower down to just below the hole for the cotter pin. Thought it would be great to really clean the driveway but it never occurred to me that I was grinding the pin down with every use as you can see in the picture below. Finally decided to replace it but I thought I'd try an idea to prevent the same thing from happening again. So first off, I removed the hook. The picture is after it was removed from the snow thrower. This required lots of elbow grease with a hacksaw blade, small grinder, a hammer and chisel. Rooting around a friends machine shop I found some 5/8 diameter rod and made up a new L shaped piece but instead of just recreating the existing hook, I decided to thread one leg of the L for a 5/8-11 thread, and drilled a 1/8 hole for a cotter pin to hold a slotted nut in place. I then welded the new lift hook back in place along with the piece of flat stock that originally help to hold it in place. Right side Left side The final photo shows the hook with the nut, pin and the large washer that will lay on top of the lift bar. I'm hoping that the combination of washer, nut and pin will be enough keep the lift bar in place. I hitched the snow thrower up last weekend to try it out and the scuffs in the paint are from the lift bar. It lifted the thrower with no problems and now winter can't get here fast enough to really give it a test. My next mod might be to add a scraper blade to the lower edge of the snowthrower as I'd rather replace that and not the snow thrower. 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
varosd 1,185 #2 Posted August 1, 2014 later models had a replaceable scraper blade. good Mod! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cod 117 #3 Posted August 5, 2014 Thanks Don! Later this winter if any problems arise I'll let the group know as there might be a very good reason why Wheel Horse never looked into it. Cod Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
WH nut 553 #4 Posted August 5, 2014 Have you hooked it up yet, How does it lift. I need to do the same. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cod 117 #5 Posted August 5, 2014 WH, Yes I did test it a couple of week back and it worked fine. In fact it lifted the snowthrower higher than the original and I didn't have to use all of the spacers I used last year between the flag and the lift tube. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
WH nut 553 #6 Posted August 5, 2014 Good to know, time to do some maintenance on mine. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
