# greasing auger shaft - 24 platinum



## trellis (Mar 14, 2018)

I just put away my 24 sho, I removed the shear pins and greased the auger shaft. The augers didn't spin freely like my previous blowers. I could turn them by hand but with resistance. I assume either the shear pins were over tightened in the factory or it's rust. This was it's first season so that much rust would seem unlikely. 

If it hits ice, rocks, twigs it should spin enough...maybe.

But it seems weird that the grease fitting is off to the side instead of in the middle of the shaft. I'm tempted to pull the pins, jam in a 2x4, let it spin and grease again?

(yes, I'm being lazy and don't want to disassemble it to check it out)


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## taylorjm (Apr 22, 2019)

So I have to add to this question. Why are there grease zerks on the auger anyway and why does it need to be greased? The only time the auger is going to spin freely from the shaft is if the shear pin breaks. Why is it so important to make sure it spins freely? Maybe it's me, but how often do the shear pins break on people? I don't think I've ever had one break.


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## cranman (Jan 23, 2016)

The auger will rust to the shaft.....and the shear pin doesn't break, but the gear box does.


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## Cutter (Mar 29, 2017)

cranman said:


> The auger will rust to the shaft.....and the shear pin doesn't break, but the gear box does.



Its uber important to grease the auger. It's also uber important not to over tighten the shear pins/bolts. If the augers hit something impassable, like a huge rock, etc...the augers will stop dead, and the shaft will spin freely inside the auger tubes ( provided you have greased them), and hopefully no harm will have come to your gearbox, which can be expensive to replace. It's well worth the 15 minutes to do that.:wink2:


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## trellis (Mar 14, 2018)

thanks.

I guess if it's only protecting the gear box and not a body part the minor resistance should be OK. I'll probably grease it again when I take it out of the shed or mid summer when I give it a mid season startup.


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## taylorjm (Apr 22, 2019)

Thank you for answering the question! I didn't think about it rusting to the auger and not being able to move if needed.


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## SimplicitySolid22 (Nov 18, 2018)

All on here will say one of the worst things that can happen to your snow blower is if the Augers rust to the shafts.....That is one SOB of a time to fix and very hard to remove once that happens. At the beginning and end of every season you should remove your shear pins to check that augers spin freely on their shafts. If tough to spin...but they spin get them off ASAP and remove any rust and grease away on those shafts.......You will appreciate it every day that you did.


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## skutflut (Oct 16, 2015)

trellis said:


> But it seems weird that the grease fitting is off to the side instead of in the middle of the shaft. I'm tempted to pull the pins, jam in a 2x4, let it spin and grease again?
> 
> (yes, I'm being lazy and don't want to disassemble it to check it out)


Your internal auger shafts are stubby instead of the full length of the rakes. They are probably about 2 inches long on each side of the gearbox so the shear bolts would be quite close to the gear box instead of in the centre of the rake tubes since there likely is no internal drive shaft that far along. I was not able to find a picture of the auger shaft for your machine but the manual shows a picture in figure 20 on page e24 that indicates very short stubs. Look at the bright side of that, there is not too much surface area to rust to the internal surface of the auger rake tubes. When you lubed the rakes and discovered they were binding, did you hear or feel any grating or roughness that would indicate you were dragging against a rusty surface? Was the resistance fairly constant or did it spin free for part of the rotation, then bind a bit the free up again?


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## trellis (Mar 14, 2018)

>Your internal auger shafts are stubby instead of the full length of the rakes

You are absolutely correct! I had assumed it was a full length shaft. Thanks for the follow up and the good questions.

The resistance didn't feel like rust, it was a constant. It was cold out, maybe just it was just well greased since it is a relatively new machine? What are your thoughts?

I wonder then if the grease fitting is over the void in the shaft and therefore you end up filling the entirely length? I should have looked to see if the grease was reached the outer edge of the housing.

thanks again


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## skutflut (Oct 16, 2015)

trellis said:


> >Your internal auger shafts are stubby instead of the full length of the rakes
> 
> You are absolutely correct! I had assumed it was a full length shaft. Thanks for the follow up and the good questions.
> 
> ...


If it was cold, and there was no grating, and the drag was constant and even, I would guess that there is grease in there and that's what is causing the drag. 

The idea of the grease is just to prevent rusting inside the tube so you don't get seized up and then break a gearbox. It coats the drive shaft and the inside of the rake tube to prevent water from getting rust started. 

From the sketch I saw in Fig 20 of the manual, looks like your shear bolts are about 3/4 inch out from the gearbox seals. also looks like the grease fittings are very close to the gearbox. I don't think they would put the zerks out beyond where the stubs are, or no grease would end up on the stub surfaces. 

When you add grease, you should be able to see it ooze out somewhere when the gaps are getting full. When that happens. spin the rakes to distribute it around, then add a bit more to see if it oozes as much as you put in. You sort of want to force some of the old grease out along with any possible moisture that might be in there. Might want to add a low temp grease when you next do it just to reduce the drag from a heavier grease that is maybe not rated for as cold as you get.

Ran across this manual that shows your setup in more detail

https://www.manualslib.com/manual/989967/Ariens-Sno-Thro-921038-Platinum-24-Sho.html?page=22#manual


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## trellis (Mar 14, 2018)

thanks, I did see grease in the neighborhood of the grease fitting... in the shear pin hole etc, but I didn't check the other side. 

Does the bushing side need grease, or since you are only protecting the gears it's not something that needs to be greased? Seems like I'd need to take it apart to get to that end if theres a void in the middle shaft.

Ariens recommended high temp grease and I used a grey moly grease. I wonder if they recommend high temp so that when it warms up it doesn't melt away. I was going to wait to take another look at it until mid summer when I start it up to make sure all is well. But now I'm curious, I may need to dig it out of the back shed and take another look before that happens.


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## WVguy (Nov 24, 2018)

trellis said:


> The resistance didn't feel like rust, it was a constant. It was cold out, maybe just it was just well greased since it is a relatively new machine? What are your thoughts?


When I put away my Deluxe 24 a few months ago I greased the wheel axles, which I hadn't done the year before because it was a newish machine and didn't get much use - very little snow. That was almost a big mistake. Although they had been greased at the factory the wheels were just a little bit reluctant to come off the axle shafts because the rust had just begun to form.

Naturally I cleaned 'em up and greased 'em up real good, and will make a point to do that every year from now on even if it is used only once over the winter (which is entirely possible around here).

Lesson humbly learned.


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## trellis (Mar 14, 2018)

Glade the axles were OK. I used the following as a guide for storage (except for not using the powdered stabilizer).


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## Cutter (Mar 29, 2017)

trellis said:


> thanks, I did see grease in the neighborhood of the grease fitting... in the shear pin hole etc, but I didn't check the other side.
> 
> Does the bushing side need grease, or since you are only protecting the gears it's not something that needs to be greased? Seems like I'd need to take it apart to get to that end if theres a void in the middle shaft.
> 
> Ariens recommended high temp grease and I used a grey moly grease. I wonder if they recommend high temp so that when it warms up it doesn't melt away. I was going to wait to take another look at it until mid summer when I start it up to make sure all is well. But now I'm curious, I may need to dig it out of the back shed and take another look before that happens.



Hey Trellis, I have used that Grey Moly Grease for 20 years, in fact, that's what my Craftsman called for. As far as I know, It is a high temp grease. I never had any problems with it, and am still using it.:smile2:


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## trellis (Mar 14, 2018)

Thanks! good to know.


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