# Broke auger shaft



## Toxic (Jan 30, 2015)

Hi Guys. I have a mint 10/28 older craftsmen 2 that i stupidly used bolts instead of shear pins resulting in a completly severed auger shaft. My question is i called sears canada looking for the part and they tell me that they no longer supply parts for my machine. I have not been able to find much out from the modle number i have of it but i do see many of the same blowers for sale around so they cant be that rare. I am not sure if it is even worth fixing at this point but i can say that it seems to be built a **** of a lot tougher than the highest end ariens that they want an insane 3000+ for.. any help or input would be appreciated.. The model number is c950-52810-9.. It is the grey body machines with the older looking motor

I am going to try to attach a picture


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## Shryp (Jan 1, 2011)

Check your local craigslist for similar machines which might have blown engines or other problems. Most likely a similar style front end or gear box will swap right in. If that fails contact a local machine shop as a simple axle shouldn't be too much trouble or expense.

Are you sure your issue is the actual shaft and not the gears in the front? More often the gears break, but there have been a couple instances of the whole shaft breaking. Or is yours old enough to be chain drive?


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## Toxic (Jan 30, 2015)

no it is belt drive but the shaft is definitly in two pecies..i have opened up the differential and the gears are good..even got the worm gear off the broken shaft but lost some of the needles out of that flat needle bearing thats in there...i cant seem to get the auger pulley off to get the shaft out of the housing yet...i think that you are right best way to fix it is to just find a new front end...or get a new machine..i usually spend 4-6 hours of soild snowblowing each storm to clean my driveway...are those ariens really worth the money? I cant seem to upload a picture of my machine here


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## Shryp (Jan 1, 2011)

The older Ariens seem to work great and a lot of people seem happy with the newer ones. There does seem to be some people having issues with the auto turn though. Other brands worth looking at would be Toro, Honda and Yamaha. I would go with used, but that is up to you. Sounds like your machines get quite the workout. If you have the space maybe see about keeping 2. Summer is always the best time to buy price wise.

For pictures it works best if you have an external image hosting site and just embed them. Some people attach them in the advanced editor (paper clip link).

For removal of stubborn pulleys a puller is best. Some people use the bolt style pullers and drill 2 or 3 holes in the pulleys as close to the center hub as possible. Any prying on the outer edge of a large pulley is going to bend it up pretty badly.


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## Toxic (Jan 30, 2015)

thanks for the tip on getting the pulley off. I do have two machines,,well down to one now..gotta have a back up for crap like this..lol.. this is the first year i didnt have a 50 hp tractor with a 7 foot snowblower to clean this driveway and so far it is definitly not as much fun any more...lol

the one to the right is the one i broke


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## Shryp (Jan 1, 2011)

Looks like a Murray built machine. Not sure what part number would cross over for you though.


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## Sid (Jan 31, 2014)

Type in Murray snowblower parts, there are several sites to look at. I found just about everything I needed for two Murrays.
Sid


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## Toxic (Jan 30, 2015)

it is the machine on the far right in the picture...it is a craftsman snowblower...are you telling me murry parts will interchange with it? My only other snowblower is a 25 year old craftsman and it is barely running. trying to clean this much driveway with snowblowers is rediculous. it is at least a km of road....sure am missing my tractor..


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## Toxic (Jan 30, 2015)

even looking up under murry looks like the shaft is an obsolete part now..they told me that on the phone when i called craftsman as well. out to the metal pile with it


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## Sid (Jan 31, 2014)

If the number starts with 536. it probably is a murray. B&S owns Murray, and a lot of on line sites have parts and some have parts diagrams also.Just type in Murray parts, and your year of mfgr. You will find quite a bit of info.
Sid


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## Toxic (Jan 30, 2015)

Its a c950 series which is a Canadian special apparently...i got the pulley off using the drill two holes and bolt a puller on method and am getting a new to me bucket for 30 bucks tomorrow. If the bucket is no good i will just take the gears auger and shaft out and put it in my original bucket.


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## Toxic (Jan 30, 2015)

hey guys..didnt want to start a new thread but i found this band at the bottom of my snowblower tonight after testing my new auger shaft..any idea what it is and if it is crucial for operation? I can for the life of me figure out where it goes..it looks like some kind of brake band??

also i have some slop inbetween the auger shaft and the bearing..the bearing itself seems tight but the auger shaft is a bit loose inside the bearing..also my pully seem to wobble..i dont think it is bent because i have two of them and they both have a little wobble..is this ok? i wasnt able to verify if the blower could throw snow because all i had was a wore out belt that slipped pretty bad when i tried to move some snow..


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