# Powershift 824 chute crank moves on its own



## threeputtpar (Jan 16, 2014)

Hello All - 

Had the first opportunity to use the PS 824 this past week and noticed one annoying quirk. When blowing snow all the way to the left, the vibration of the machine would turn the chute crank handle one its own until the chute was pointing straight forward. On every other pass I had to hold the crank with my right hand while holding the drive lever with my left. Kind of a pain.

Any good ideas how to rectify this? Are there any adjustments to keep them from rotating on their own? It also will not stay in position to the right when the crank is in any other position than 6 o'clock. Thanks.

Edit: It appears that there should be a bushing of some kind on the control panel that the upper rod goes through and that applies resistance that keeps the rod from moving on its own. Just another example of the fine maintenance the PO of this machine performed!


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## UNDERTAKER (Dec 30, 2013)

the knuckle were the gears mesh together. they are wearing down. 2,699


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## Pathfinder13 (Feb 28, 2014)

Mine does this also, kinda loosey goosey and turns with vibration of engine. On the verticle rod going down from the handle just rig up some sort of restriction like mini bungie wrapped a few times, or a eye bolt with a rubber grommet turned and tightened on it so you need to actually turn the crank ( don't make it hard to turn just tension a bit) so that it doesn't just "float" with vibration. Just do it on the vertical peice only, as this will not stress the knuckle joint when you crank the swivel. I also added one flat washer next to the worm gear to remove the fore and aft play it has, greased it up works well.


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## threeputtpar (Jan 16, 2014)

Pathfinder13, thank for the suggestions. Upon looking at it again last night, it still had the rubber bushing on the control panel but the hole in the bushing is reamed out quite a bit from use. I think I'll do the quick and dirty rigging by wrapping electrical tape around the vertical rod enough so it makes it a snug fit in the bushing again. I really love the $0 fixes with stuff on hand!


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## Pathfinder13 (Feb 28, 2014)

That will work for a quick fix but you may be fixing it all over again later. I found the rubber grommet within an eye bolt to be a permanent fix for a couple bucks only. If it loosens, a quickie adjustment with two wrenches takes about ten seconds.


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## SnowdIn (Feb 12, 2015)

I have been having this same problem this winter with my 824 Power Shift. I solved it by adding two washers at the end of the rod between the worm gear and the metal bracket. This was suggested in another thread on the forum and I decided to give it a try. The washers took up all of the play/slop there effectively tightening it enough so the chute no longer moves on it's own. Much better feel and contact to the teeth on the chute when turning the crank now too. I had previously replaced the nylon chute guides to try and correct this with no success. The knuckle and worm gears are in good shape.


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## Pathfinder13 (Feb 28, 2014)

SnowdIn said:


> I have been having this same problem this winter with my 824 Power Shift. I solved it by adding two washers at the end of the rod between the worm gear and the metal bracket. This was suggested in another thread on the forum and I decided to give it a try. The washers took up all of the play/slop there effectively tightening it enough so the chute no longer moves on it's own. Much better feel and contact to the teeth on the chute when turning the crank now too.


That works just perfect so long as you get the right thickness washers and not too tight in there. 

You don't want to "need" added force to turn the control as that would stress the knuckle gears where it transfers from vertical to horizontal. 

If you got that just right , keep em' greased, you found a good fix !


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## SnowdIn (Feb 12, 2015)

Thanks Pathfinder13! I agree. I tried one washer first and it didn't do anything. When I added the second it made the difference. There is still a bit of play remaining, but the tension on the handle now feels correct with just the right amount of resistance and the chute no longer wanders around. I had already tried replacing the three chute guides some time ago to correct the problem and it helped, but not enough.


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## Bob J (Feb 8, 2015)

Great idea SnowdIn..... I'll have to try that on my Toro....


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## SnowdIn (Feb 12, 2015)

Bob J said:


> Great idea SnowdIn..... I'll have to try that on my Toro....


Hope it works on your machine. A little hard to explain, but the entire chute control now finally feels "right". I was even able to back off the bracket adjustment a bit by moving the worm gear a bit more away from the chute gear. Previously, it would bind in a couple of spots of it's travel, but it was either that or put up with the chute having a mind of its' own and wandering. (On my machine it was particularly bad on downward slopes where the chute would just work its way to straight ahead.)


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## detdrbuzzard (Jan 20, 2012)

SnowdIn said:


> I have been having this same problem this winter with my 824 Power Shift. I solved it by adding two washers at the end of the rod between the worm gear and the metal bracket. This was suggested in another thread on the forum and I decided to give it a try. The washers took up all of the play/slop there effectively tightening it enough so the chute no longer moves on it's own. Much better feel and contact to the teeth on the chute when turning the crank now too. I had previously replaced the nylon chute guides to try and correct this with no success. The knuckle and worm gears are in good shape.


we were talking about this in another post and I bought up sandwiching a washer in the worm gear even though I haven done it yet. now I need to do this on two of my 521's and the powershift. looking at my latest 521 and the 521E the plastic sleeve up near the crank handle is what puts friction on the rod. the new 521 is missing that piece so the crank is almost useless, on the 521e I did as joe did and just put the handle bar bracket on an angle so there is tension but its not enough so the washer mod is next


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## threeputtpar (Jan 16, 2014)

Hey, thanks for reviving this thread with that great suggestion! I first tried to get a couple layers of electrical tape in the mount on the dash, but that just got tore up quickly. I will certainly try a washer or two inside of the metal worm gear housing.


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## SnowdIn (Feb 12, 2015)

detdrbuzzard said:


> we were talking about this in another post and I bought up sandwiching a washer in the worm gear even though I haven done it yet. now I need to do this on two of my 521's and the powershift. looking at my latest 521 and the 521E the plastic sleeve up near the crank handle is what puts friction on the rod. the new 521 is missing that piece so the crank is almost useless, on the 521e I did as joe did and just put the handle bar bracket on an angle so there is tension but its not enough so the washer mod is next


That's where I got the idea and I cross posted my results to that thread as well. YMMV may vary, but I hope it works for you. I had a bunch of washers I experimented with. I think one of those cupped spring-type washers would work even better, but I didn't have any that would fit on the control rod. I ended up using two that are almost the diameter of the worm gear itself so it removed the play across the entire surface of the worm gear. A slight amount of play still remains with the washers I used.

Good luck with the fix! Let us know how you make out.


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## detdrbuzzard (Jan 20, 2012)

i'm not going to get to that job until it gets warm out but i've got my list of things to do and its on the list


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## SnowdIn (Feb 12, 2015)

detdrbuzzard said:


> i'm not going to get to that job until it gets warm out but i've got my list of things to do and its on the list


I hear ya. I have to work on a glitchy cam-lock release for the auger but it has been WAY to cold around here to work on that. Regardless, I wouldn't want to risk taking it apart and ending up with more problems and a disabled machine until the end of the snow season. March is always a miserable month around here and usually good for a few potent snow storms before we're out of the woods.


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## Pathfinder13 (Feb 28, 2014)

OK, while I do agree with the idea of taking up the free slack and adding a washer or two between the worm gear and the bracket, I maintain that if you create a tight situation and end up needing to turn the rotator handle harder to move it at that point you are "stressing" the plastic knuckle joint and that's not really a good idea. 

So, I would take up free space slack in the bracket area as your idea to fix the "free-play" and then..try and add a tension to the vertical piece only so as to make that vertical piece the one that stops the "free-rotation" tendancies and then when you have to turn the handle a little harder you *not* stressing the plastic knuckle joint because it is "downstream" of the tension added.


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## threeputtpar (Jan 16, 2014)

Pathfinder, I get what you're saying. I was thinking of one of these:










with one of these on the inside:









Then just find a place to mount the bolt on the handlebars.


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## Pathfinder13 (Feb 28, 2014)

threeputtpar said:


> Pathfinder, I get what you're saying. I was thinking of one of these:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


That ought to work just fine. I used a mini bungee cord wrapped a couple times around, but that eye bolt and grommet will be even better.

I have seen that done before, will most likely add one to my own for next season. It can be rotated a bit and tightened to add good tension.


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## bronn033 (Jan 12, 2017)

Pathfinder13 said:


> Mine does this also, kinda loosey goosey and turns with vibration of engine. On the verticle rod going down from the handle just rig up some sort of restriction like mini bungie wrapped a few times, or a eye bolt with a rubber grommet turned and tightened on it so you need to actually turn the crank ( don't make it hard to turn just tension a bit) so that it doesn't just "float" with vibration. Just do it on the vertical peice only, as this will not stress the knuckle joint when you crank the swivel. I also added one flat washer next to the worm gear to remove the fore and aft play it has, greased it up works well.


Would you be willing to send a picture of the eyehook setup?


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