MTD Snowblower Auger Problem

I have a 1994 MTD model 314-640F000 snowblower that i aquired. It worked fine on the light snow we had last week, however now that we have packed snow from the plowtruck the auger blade will not power thru it. I brought it in the garage to see if the belts were lose or glazed, or the engagement was lose. Everything checked fine.

The blower fan spins fine and doesnt skip a beat. Nothing has stopped it yet. When i moved the blower fan with my hand it does spin the auger, however just by me slightly holding the auger the auger will stop spinning. That narrowed it down to the gearbox assy.

I have since taken the auger off, and taken the gearbox assy apart. Old dirty grease came out (i expected that being its 14 years old) The brass gears look fine, and the worm gear also looks fine. Everything seems solid inside the gearbox, just some old caked on grease.

My question is, is there something that was just mis-aligned? or the bad grease causing my auger problems?

Also correct me if i am wrong but MTD calls for 2oz. of Shell Alvania grease in the gearbox. If i have a hard time finding that is there anything else equivalint?

Thank you for your time, sorry if i was long winded.


Josh

 

You may have a broken key on the auger shaft. Did you remove the worm gear from the auger shaft to see?

AJ

 

No i did not. I was unsure how to take the worm gear(s) off the impeller shaft or auger shaft. I can try to do that tomorrow morning

edit: but i did grab the gear with my hand and held the augershaft tight and could not spin the gear. But then again, i probably didnt generate enough torque either.

 

OK. These 2 comments(we have packed snow from the plowtruck the auger blade will not power thru it. & however just by me slightly holding the auger the auger will stop spinning) make me have to ask. Are the auger shear pins there? If you can stop the augers by holding them, it sounds like they are only spinning due to being slightly rusted to the shafts.
Also, while you have it apart, it would be a good time to replace the auger bushings since the machine is 14 years old.
End bushing part#741-0300 (2) required and 741-0493A (4) required. Shear pins#710-0890(2) required. Do not use bolts!! Shear pins are softer & made to break.
MTD grease part #737-0168A. You can also use "oo" grease.

 

shear pins are and were fully intact when i took them out. Thanks for the bushing and grease advice.

Josh

 

When you took apart the gearcase, did you see a keyway on the auger shaft under the brass worm gear? There should be one there.

 

yes but it is very flat and difformed from what i can see going to take a picture now


edit: guess i cant post pics, but its flat. Im off to get a new one.

 

that was it. It was a sheared off hi pro key. unfortunitly no one local had one, will be here tuesday next week.

Thanks for all the help guys.

Now its time to figure out my carb problems

 

Aspitfire

I have the same model and I'm having exactly the same problem. Did you have to take off the front end to get to the hi pro key? If you had pictures to help me out that would be great. Is the part number that you used for the key 714-0161?

Thanks,

Andy

email: lagerae@hotmail.com

 

Got to it before you could respond, from looking at the hi pro key, it looks like this could be a common problem since the key isn't that thick and could easily shear off before the shear bolts went. Taking apart the front end of the snowblower only took about a half hour so it was a lot easier than i thought it would be.

 

When you reinstall everything, make sure you set the auger the proper height off the ground. This is usually a quarter inch. I usually use a quarter inch plywood scrap under the auger and then lower the side skid shoes to the ground and then the scraper bar. I have seen some badly worn shoes and scraper bars that have caused the key and/or shear bolts to fail due to the auger draging on the pavement. It does not matter what brand two stage except for the auger propelled models.

 

Thanks Camino Kid,

One last thing is that I used a woodruff key (key #61) vs the hi pro key(key #506). Both are 3/16 x 5/8. After putting the the woodruff key in (it is only a half moon vs a half moon with the bar for the hi pro), I am conviinced it will work as well as the hi pro key. The reason I did this is that woodruff keys are much easier to obtain than the hi pro key. I was able to obtain one locally at a small engine repair shop (gave it to me for free) or Ace hardware carries them also. Hi pro online usually runs $10 due to shipping and handling fees plus you have to wait a week to get it. Taking apart and putting everything back together took about an hour total. A lot easier than I thought it would be.

Andy

 

how do you trmove the auger?

 

Well dtddd, It depends on the brand and model of blower that you have. Most of the time with a two stage units, you separate the front assembly at the belt section, 4 to 6 bolts/nuts. Then you have to remove the pulley on the input shaft. I use a ball joint separater, know as a pickle fork that I slide between the pulley and rear bearing. After the pulley is off I remove the bearing holder bolts/nuts, then the end cap bearing holders on each side of the auger. The whole assembly slides out forward than you can remove the augers from the shafts by removing the shear bolts. If you need to work on the gear box, then you clean up the shafts and remove the bolts on the gear box so you can split the halves.

 

Hello
I have an MTD snowthrower and it is all apart. I suspect there is something up with the GEARBOX cause it wont turn (shear pins are fine). BUT...

I cannot remove the auger assembly from the housing. It seems VERY stuck. Once again, i did remove the chute from engine front (six nuts, 2 belts and pull linkage) and took off the six bolts that hold (2 revolving snow thing) BUT////
I cannot get the auger shaft to remove from assembly.

(i am thinking about dynamite)

Please HELP

Thanks

 

You have to remove the belt pulley on the front housing and then you have the bearing retainer to take the nuts off and then the sides have some bearing retainers also to take the nuts and bolts off. After that it should almost fall out.