Ariens snowblower engine only powers half of auger

[mayhembiff]

Thank you for leaving this up. I have the exact same problem. Now I just need to find my manual! You saved me a great deal of time and grief!

[SuperGozzy]

lowes carries shear pin there not ariens but shear pins r universal

[kctyphoon]

oh boy.. read the manual buddy..

[ptakja1]

Sounds like a shear pin problem. Cheap to buy and easy to replace.

[perkerfrans]

you just need to put in a new bolt on the auger... mine breaks all the time when i hit ice chunks, or other hard stuff.

[851995STARGATE]

@perkerfrans its a sheer pin, it breaks to protect the transmission so its good that it breaks

[x0xmusclemanx0x]

You broke a SHEER BOLT.

[tscholent]

if your an amateur it's tempting to buy a snow blower at a big hardware outlet. Actually that person should be buying his tool at a small professional outfit because they would also point out the obvious quick fixes at the time of purchase.Hardware stores are for pro's that know how to rebuild the damn thing if necessary.

[gre6968]

use shear bolts, they are suposed to break when you hit something

[4u250ut]

the shear pins is broken on the right side..if you can turn the auger by hand..just replace the shear pins, and it work again.

[billykash9]

get a new shear bolt its near the middle and its made so you don't kill the gear box

[TwinsTec101]

its only a screw that is some were on your oger

[puckboy12345678]

Yeah that happened to me last january and I just bought a new shear pin at my hardware store.

[moomee237]

My Honda does this every so often when going into extremely hard ice. I go through like 3 a season, but I push it pretty hard during the winters 12 inch snow falls.

[derf9498]

Any shear bolt will work as long as it fits in the hole. If you need to have a quick fix like in the middle of a storm you can put any old steel bolt in there to make it work but I wouldn't recommend it in one of these new machines. We don't even use shear bolts in our late 60's Ariens as the old machines are made to last. Never had a problem using steel bolts and should never have one. Same bolts in them for almost 40 years. Good luck with your snow blower, Ariens are top of the line.

[MikeRoweDirtyJobs]

@derf9498 well you guys are lucky that the gears in the box on the auger and in the machine havent broke, thats what sheer bolts are made for so if you hit a rock with a sheer in it the bolt will snap but if you still have those steel bolts in it KEEP AWAY FROM THICK ICE OR RoCKS YOU WILL DAMAGE YOUR MACHINE. all im sayin is your lucky!!!!!!!!!

[MikeRoweDirtyJobs]

@derf9498 well you guys are lucky that the gears in the box on the auger and in the machine havent broke, thats what sheer bolts are made for so if you hit a rock with a sheer in it the bolt will snap but if you still have those steel bolts in it KEEP AWAY FROM THICK ICE OR RoCKS YOU WILL DAMAGE YOUR MACHINE. all im sayin is your lucky!!!!!!!!!

[l337pwnage]

@derf9498 Old machines don't have any teeth on their augers, they bounce off the hard stuff, the new augers dig in. Wrong bolt = busted gearbox. My relatively new blower has shear pins, but I never broke one once because it is old enough that it has no teeth. It just gums the snow to death. When I push it into frozen chunks it just bounces all over but never shears a pin cuz its got no bite.

I plan on cutting teeth in it, and then I'll probably get to use those extra shear pins, lol.

[1216saab]

@l337pwnage Yes I have a busted gearbox I bought the ariens used.

[l337pwnage]

@1216saab bummer. hopefully you can get it fixed cheap.

Some machines can be real expensive to fix, but I know my buddy had new gears put in his Ariens and I -thought- it was under $100, but I don't really remember.

/watch?v=mACWY2TFQQk

[1216saab]

@l337pwnage I can get the part for about $200 not including the labor. To me its worth saving the old ariens. I repainted it and it really runs great.

[l337pwnage]

@1216saab There is also Ebay if you're not in a hurry, but $200 aint too bad as Ariens are pretty well built machines for the most part. Mine has been badly abused and it just keeps on going.

[1216saab]

@l337pwnage I think the problem was that the wrong shear pins were used by the last owner. No visible signs of damage though. The gearbox just stopped turning the auger. The pins are still intact.

[l337pwnage]

@1216saab If they are the correct pins they will look like bolts with a nut on them except there are deep grooves machined in them where they are supposed to shear.

Another reason gearboxes can fail is if the lube leaked out and they were run dry. This doesn't happen often, but on a machine with a housing style that splits in half, it could leak out the bottom seam.

I didn't use factory lube in mine, I just filled it with a grease/oil mix. My seals are shot and I didn't want it to leak out.

[1216saab]

@l337pwnage Thanks..I plan on fixing it soon but it is too heavy to load on a truck.....It is a definate gear problem .

[dudechillinathome]

shear bolts

[Leahyaya420]

it is the sheer pin

[Leahyaya420]

the bolt on the blade is gone you can get a nut and scew and find the hole

[assmunch1]

Well, you're all wrong it is a shear bolt, or shear pin, not sheer bolt. "Shear" as in, it gets sheared off if something jams in the auger. Must be your first time using a snowblower eh?

[tannmann391]

really ur home depot sells them? Cool. My doesn't. 

Good luck.

[tannmann391]

no home depot wouldn't carry ariens sheer pins. you will have to go to a ariens distributer and get the right kind. If you don't you could brake another pin or even make the hole larger causing you to have to look around for 2 different size sheer pins.

[mporth]

Thanks for the great answers. I also got an email from Ariens telling me that there were two extra sheer bolts in with the manual. I had been looking at a pdf version but after getting that email I dug up the original and sure enough they were there. I'm going to leave this video up so if anyone else doesn't know what a sheer bolt is they can find out too.

[paisteboy]

I have an Ariens and I bought my replacement Ariens sheer bolts at Home Depot. They sell Ariens sheer bolts at my Home Depot.

[mporth]

Thanks for the answers, It looks like you are right, the manual says to look at sheer bolts if it throws snow poorly, I didn't think of that since it was not really throwing snow at all. It says to always use Ariens sheer bolts. Is that something they would carry at home depot (where I bought it) and/or are they in common enough sizes where I could pick up one that is not made by Arians somewhere?

Thanks for the speedy answers!!

[BandOnTheRun87]

its a sheer pin

[sgtsampay]

You broke a sheer pin on the left auger. Just take the old one out and replace it... Its very easy...