# Vibration in 227 (OP by Grandpa Ray)



## Yanmar Ronin (Jan 31, 2015)

grandpa ray said:


> I am new to the forum...


Welcome aboard Ray, glad to have you here.


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## sledman8002002 (Jan 20, 2021)

Welcome to the site Ray. 
If you were to create yourself a new post here in the Husqvarna section with your issue you'll get plenty of replies and help.


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## grandpa ray (Dec 9, 2021)

I am new to the forum and I don't know if this has been previously addressed. My 227 is three years old and has run great. When I was using it in 10 inches of snow plow piled snow, I got a vibration. Since I live on a dirt road and was working over grass, i though I may hit a rock but no rock. The vibration comes and goes, sometimes in heavy snow and sometimes in light 4-6 inch powder. I am wondering what it could be? There is no ice build up on the moving parts Previously, the machine has ingested debris from the plow pile and I have sheared one set of shear pins. There is some minor damage to the auger blade on one side but the vibration is intermittent so I don't think that is the problem. Bearings?


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## sledman8002002 (Jan 20, 2021)

grandpa ray said:


> Bearings?


A possibility no doubt. Impeller bearing comes to mind due to the vibration happening when a load is present. (With the machine off), reach in and grab the impeller shaft and check for excessive up-down-back & forth movement.
Even tho you had some minor damage to the auger, (slight bend?), myself I'd want to deal with that if I could. I'd also want to see the augers and impeller while they're turning at speed (empty bucket) and watch for an excessive shaft wobble. (Of course keep your hands away)
I've seen a very worn/flat spotted auger belt cause said issue before.
Give the exterior a good once over checking for loose nuts/bolts.


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## Oneacer (Jan 3, 2011)

I would first be looking at the belt, idler, etc., and then check out all the bearings, shear pins, etc...... The entire system should be firm, yet spin freely.


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## dr bob (Dec 12, 2015)

Welcome to Snowblower forum!

Look closely at the augers, as your symptom points to a bent auger flight. When bent, they don't clear snow evenly, and you get that temporary vibration as packed snow or ice gets hung up on one part of the auger flight. The augers are there to break snow and feed it to the impeller. They have a tough time with ice chunks if you push hard to get them to bite off pieces. Better to let them chew, and maybe take smaller gulps. I've straightened mine a couple times for the same symptom, and should probably buy and hoard a set of new augers while they are still readily available. The edges are worn from an early-life mistake in not monitoring the skid shoe wear, letting the flights grind on the driveway.

Look for bent or distorted paddles on the impeller too. 

More:
Your scraper bar should be clear of the driveway by somewhere between about 3/16" for smooth asphalt or concrete, to maybe 3/4" for packed and frozen gravel driveway. Adjust the skid shoes on the bucket ends to maintain that clearance. The scraper and the augers shouldn't be hitting the driveway at all. Augers hitting the driveway will give you a vibration similar to what you describe.

----

To your question about bearings:
I decided to replace the bearing behind the impeller as PM, after reading about folks having some shaft damage with worn bearings. I detailed the effort in the "running blog" thread. I will share that the bearing that was in there, going into season 8, was still in good shape.


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## Chils (May 13, 2021)

Yanmar Ronin said:


> Welcome aboard Ray, glad to have you here.





sledman8002002 said:


> Welcome to the site Ray.
> If you were to create yourself a new post here in the Husqvarna section with your issue you'll get plenty of replies and help.


I moved these over here but it is unusual for posts moved to an existing thread to appear up top above the OP. If yall are ok with it if you repeat your posts I'll delete them from the top.


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## dr bob (Dec 12, 2015)

Hi Chils --

[Geek Mode]
Most forum software re-orders the posts in chronological order when threads are combined. It's almost mandatory, since each post gets it's own sequentially-assigned ID number when it's created, and those are impractical or impossible to change. And you may not want to, especially if your forum is regularly indexed by search-engine bots.

[/geek mode]


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## WrenchIt (Dec 6, 2020)

I would think three years is not enough time to accumulate enough hours to show bearing wear. That said, if you have to pull the auger to straighten the bent part, checking the bearings becomes easy. I would echo the comment above about a bent auger not clearing snow properly and uneven build up of snow on the bent auger could cause vibration.


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## Chils (May 13, 2021)

dr bob said:


> Hi Chils --
> 
> [Geek Mode]
> Most forum software re-orders the posts in chronological order when threads are combined. It's almost mandatory, since each post gets it's own sequentially-assigned ID number when it's created, and those are impractical or impossible to change. And you may not want to, especially if your forum is regularly indexed by search-engine bots.
> ...


Makes sense to me. This was an unusual situation with the 3rd post down repeated from another thread as the start of this thread. the other post was a duplicate in another thread earlier than this thread was started. Very strange to bump the OP down though. You'd think he'd have a lock on it as the OP.


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## Yanmar Ronin (Jan 31, 2015)

Glitch in the Matrix... steady on. 🍻

I edited the title to attribute the thread to @grandpa ray.


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## Chils (May 13, 2021)

Yanmar Ronin said:


> Glitch in the Matrix... steady on. 🍻
> 
> I edited the title to attribute the thread to Grandpa Ray.


Good idea.


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## Yanmar Ronin (Jan 31, 2015)

Chils said:


> Good idea.


I have my moments... 🤪


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## English Gramma Poultice (Nov 30, 2021)

Yanmar Ronin said:


> I have my moments... 🤪


Oh Yeeeeah!


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## grandpa ray (Dec 9, 2021)

I agree with Dr Bob's analysis. The scraper bar was on the ground and so I adjusted it up to 3/4 inch. Also, I am slowing down in the heavier snow to only take 1/2 the width of the machine. That seems to have helped a lot. I do need to do more in the next off season to replace the auger blades. I was looking at them and they seem to have some wear since I did not adjust the height. I came up here from Vegas so this whole snow thing is a learning cliff. Thanks


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## grandpa ray (Dec 9, 2021)

I have done more hours to come to a more clear understanding. We had 12-14 of new snow and the machine did a great job of throwing it in a big beautiful arc in the morning. It was so warm in the afternoon (around 40) that the snow was just getting really dense but I didn't understand that. I was getting more periods of vibration and noted that not much was coming out of the chute. I looked at the front and the augers were completely filled with snow, packed in like a snow cone. I used the cleaning tool to try and break it up to some success but since the snow was so dense, the problem repeated. I was just slicing off about 4 inches off the side of the snow bank and this wasn't even the packed plow pile. Luckily it was at the end of the day and I took the machine home and I am just going to let it sit in the sun to defrost. I understand the problem is a "rate of feed" issue that varies with the material. I didn't think snow would change density so quickly. But, lesson learned.

I do have another question. How do I stop wet snow from accumulating on the augers? We usually have dry snow but I can see this happening in the future.

Thanks for all the input!!


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## Yanmar Ronin (Jan 31, 2015)

grandpa ray said:


> I do have another question. How do I stop wet snow from accumulating on the augers? We usually have dry snow but I can see this happening in the future.
> 
> Thanks for all the input!!


After a certain point it's like trying to blow wet concrete, no matter what.

Up until that point Fluid Film/similar or a good coat of wax will help.


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## dr bob (Dec 12, 2015)

I give the whole thing a good coating of wax/paint sealant at the beginning of the season, including the auger flights, impeller and the insides of the front and the chute. Wherever snow touches I'm working to make it less attractive for sticking. The chute gets an extra layer of wax/sealant especially when snow is wet/heavy, so iit has the ebst chance of getting thrown vs. clogging.

There's a modification called an "impeller mod" that's popular among many here, where rubber or other material is used to tighten the clearances between the impeller paddles and the inside of the impeller barrel. It helps solve some issues with throwing wet or dense snow, but absolutely demands that you keep the chute slippery and clear if you want it to be effective. Even with both the mod and the wax/paint sealant, I still get some buildup in the chute and end up cleaning it out with the poking tool. I have never used the oft-recommended-here "fluid film", mostly because we so very seldom get wet snow here at the dr bob world headquarters at about 4000' elevation. Regardless, invest some time with your favorite wax/paint sealant on everything in the front of the machine, and most of the clogging issues will take care of themselves.

Know that any bent auger flights will risk clogging when packed wet snow gets compressed in some of the bent sections. Grab a big adjustable wrench and bar to pass through the handle on that wrench, and see if you can straighten any bent sections so the distance between flight sections is at least consistent.

When you are clearing, consider moving at a slower speed vs. takin only a partial bite of the snow, so the load is distributed well across the machine. You'll be less likely to end up with a chuck of wet snow spinning at one end of the augers and all that vibration.


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## grandpa ray (Dec 9, 2021)

Thanks for your responses!!


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