# 932026 Plastic Wheels



## bagmite (Feb 7, 2014)

Just picked up a ST524 (932026 serial 011390) and it has plastic wheels with an inside locking pin. The wheels are worn on the inside of the bore so they wobble when powered. Driveshaft does not reach through the wheel. Is it possible these are not the original wheels? When checking the part number in the manual (0712440 is original) I notice that the part number has changed to 07148500. Have looked through the forum and can't seem to find this problem. Any help would be appreciated.


----------



## Normex (Feb 21, 2014)

Bump for Grunt or whoever interested


----------



## detdrbuzzard (Jan 20, 2012)

every st524 I've seen had pneumatic tires


----------



## bagmite (Feb 7, 2014)

This unit has pneumatic tires - it's the wheels that are plastic. I found a history link (since lost) which indicated that Ariens did use plastic wheels for a short period in the early 90's which is when this unit is from. The problem is that the plastic wheels have about a 2 inch offset and the 3/4 inch drive shaft only reaches about 2 inches or so into the wheel. With plastic this was a bad design (shaft wore plastic and wobbled) which is probably why they no longer use it. (Replacement wheels for this model are steel.) Worse, the drive pin is on the inside, which is very handy. If the drive shaft was long enough to go through the entire wheel, it might have been enough. Arguably one of the worst designs you will ever see on a piece of power equipment. At least everything else runs well on it.

My buddy is a machinist and fixer of things. He took a 3/4 inch black iron pipe, drilled it slightly to fit over the shaft and then turned it down so he wouldn't have to drill so much plastic out. Gently press fit into the plastic wheel beyond the shaft length and it is better than it ever was. Nice to have the tools to do this and saved buying two new wheels for $110 or so.


----------



## dbert (Aug 25, 2013)

Sounds like you need to keep your friendship dues paid up with that guy.


----------

