# Shear Pin = Sheer Torture



## abytehead (Feb 13, 2019)

My John Deere 1330SE snow blower frequently blows the shear pin. Maybe once an hour of use.
With snow as low as 4" or up to 12". Always the same side. In 8 years never on the other side.
I am becoming quite adept at changing pins! Over 75 so far.
The auger turns freely with no apparent free play or wiggle. I use pins from the JD dealer as well as other brands.
These are the pin type with spring clips (not bolts).
No rocks or branches. Sometimes a piece of ice. Usually just snow.
This past summer I attempted to take it apart and inspect but could not get very far with opening the gear housing.
I keep the fittings greased and have tried WD40 & the stuff they sell in Home Depot to keep wet snow and ice from building up. It keeps it clear but does not prevent the shearing.
Suggestions, thoughts please.
Thanks.


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## RedOctobyr (Mar 2, 2014)

Is the other auger able to wiggle on the shaft? In other words, is it free on the shaft, and is that shear pin therefore able to do its job?

What happens if you swap the two shear pins? Does the failure stay with the side of the machine, or with the shear pins? 

And/or, install one of the current shear pins on the good side, as a test, to see if they suddenly start breaking. Maybe your old pins were a lot stronger, and you've just never broken that "good" one. 

I've never seen a machine just keep blowing pins for no reason, sorry. Certainly not just on one side, unless there is something different about the other side.


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## abytehead (Feb 13, 2019)

This past summer when I did yearly oil change and stuff I checked the pins. The one that never broke appeared distorted so I replaced it before it broke using the same pins that I am having trouble with on the opposite side. Always use grease. Both sides rotate on the shaft with no pin the same.
Neither side has any free play or wiggle with pins in place.


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## Sid (Jan 31, 2014)

What diameter are the pins ? 1/4" or 5/16"
Sid


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## abytehead (Feb 13, 2019)

1/4 inch and they fit snug. Bought 5/16 by mistake once and they are way too large.


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## RedOctobyr (Mar 2, 2014)

Any chance that the auger that keeps breaking pins is periodically catching on the bucket housing somehow? And getting stuck, then breaking the pin? With the pin removed, can you get the auger to touch anything if you spin and side it? Any shiny marks around it, on the bucket or scraper bar?


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## abytehead (Feb 13, 2019)

I will check that out at first light. Thanks for the tip.


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## Sid (Jan 31, 2014)

Those 1/4 pins don't have much meat on them. If they are "full" threaded, there is barely 3/16" on the basic bolt. I would try a bolt from a hdw store with threads only maybe only enough to length to be solid at one side of the shaft / hub areas, you might have to get a bolt that is a little longer than it needs to be, you might want to cut it off, but you don't need to, especially if they break a lot. Just a thought
Sid


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## RedOctobyr (Mar 2, 2014)

If they are the correct shear pins, what would be the advantage of using a normal bolt? They're presumably breaking for a reason. Just using something stronger, that's not the correct part, might simply make something else break.


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## JLawrence08648 (Jan 15, 2017)

Something is binding. You need to disconnect things and start spinning and feeling individual components.

Change brands of pins, are they cheapies? Different quality of steel maybe?

Last resort, always drill it out and use 5/16" pins.


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## Bondo 287 (Jan 31, 2019)

75 Grand Slams. This should have been pretty conspicuous. If you come up empty in the auger box, you're looking in the wrong place. Check the impeller. And check it for travel. Maybe the auger action is unimpeded, but the power tree is hiccuping. Torque always has a favorite side. 

As you already know, there's also the gearbox. But before I'd go to that step, I'd just dip a sponge brush in yellow paint and run it across the blade end and see if that tells me anything after next incident. Might be a waste of time. You've been putting up with it anyway....


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## skutflut (Oct 16, 2015)

Just a couple of thoughts..

Have you checked to see if the holes in the auger tube are out of round? If they have gone seriously oval, only on the one rake on one side of the machine, perhaps the amount of play is allowing the inertia to shear the bolts when you go through a particular kind of snow/ice chunks. 

Either that, or that one rake is catching on some part of the housing as was suggested. That might indicate excessive end play in the bushing or bearing.


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## abytehead (Feb 13, 2019)

No excess play, scrapes or wobble detected.
Spins free without a pin.
Thanks.


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## Lottstodo (Feb 16, 2018)

I have seen a few blowers do that and could not find the reason, however after a little investigation and q/a I asked the owner if by chance the side that was always breaking was the side that he favored against the bank (that last edge done) and indeed he would always do the edge with the rt side, so as a test I told him the next time for grins use the left of the blower to cut the edge last pass and sure enough he sheared a lft pin that hadnt ever sheared before and the rt was good.... It made sense after that he was constantly picking up and cutting the hard pack and ice pack on that dominate side (for him) . Rt handed.
maybe?? you too..


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## Lottstodo (Feb 16, 2018)

One other thing to check, and that would be that the cutting edge is down and sitting square to the blower. so that when you adjust the skid shoes you are doing so squarely. 
I have seen cutting edges cocked in the machine as much as a 1/2" and when they would adjust the skids using that edge one skid was still way off and let that side of the auger travel to close to the ground and would let it grab fault cracks , concrete edges, sod , anything that was a bump high enough to grab.

This happened on a couple of machines a few years ago


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## abytehead (Feb 13, 2019)

I very well might be favoring using the left (problematic) side for cleaning edges. Will favor right side and see what happens.


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## Toro-8-2-4 (Dec 28, 2013)

abytehead said:


> I very well might be favoring using the left (problematic) side for cleaning edges. Will favor right side and see what happens.


Yes and if the problem does not move to the other side then raise the skid shoes a 1/4 inch to see if that has any influence. But do one at a time so you can tell which it may be.


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## johndryeye (Mar 11, 2021)

abytehead said:


> My John Deere 1330SE snow blower frequently blows the shear pin. Maybe once an hour of use.
> With snow as low as 4" or up to 12". Always the same side. In 8 years never on the other side.
> I am becoming quite adept at changing pins! Over 75 so far.
> The auger turns freely with no apparent free play or wiggle. I use pins from the JD dealer as well as other brands.
> ...


I have the same problem with my 1330se. If you are facing the Auger, the shear pin on the right side constantly breaks. I have had the machine for 10 years. It is driving me nuts. When the shear pin is out, there is a little right and left play in the Auger blade, but I think that is normal. Have you found a reason? Where do you purchase your shear pins? Thanks.


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## orangputeh (Nov 24, 2016)

had a guy with this problem. after checking the shear pin holes to see if elongated ( they both were just a little ) the problem was the skid shoe and scraper bar adjustment which was never done.

The augers on one side was hitting the ground/pavement . i inspected both augers and seen that the serrations were worn on one side more than the other. we readjusted shoes and bar and no more problem.

just one possibility.


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## 140278 (Aug 27, 2020)

johndryeye said:


> I have the same problem with my 1330se. If you are facing the Auger, the shear pin on the right side constantly breaks. I have had the machine for 10 years. It is driving me nuts. When the shear pin is out, there is a little right and left play in the Auger blade, but I think that is normal. Have you found a reason? Where do you purchase your shear pins? Thanks.


welcome to the SBF
lots of jersey guys in here


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