# Auger lubricating questions



## fredct (Jan 9, 2017)

I’ve had my blower for 1.5 seasons now. Last year I didn’t do any of the lubricating steps as id only used it for a handful of hours and I honestly wasn’t comfortable doing so.

This year I want to do the right maintenance and between the manual and YouTube videos I think I’m comfortable lubricating the gear shaft and wheels and probably the chute control, but the auger is confusing me, for two reasons...

First the manual just says “spray lubricant”, nothing about what kind. The others say automotive grease or 3-in-1 oil or something. This says just “lubricant”. What Vaseline? WD-14? Motor oil? 🙂 I presume not and I presume it just says that because there’s a lot of valid choices. But I’m a total newb... what’s the parameters of what’s okay to use?

Secondly, when I find videos of people doing it they’re doing two totally different things (YouTube videos are usually my key to feeling like I know what to do). One videos shows a guy using a grease gun to push grease into where the shear pin was removed from “until grease squeezes out the ends”. Another video just shows someone using a spray can to spray some of the flange bearings and spacers (honestly I had no idea what a flange was until I was looking this stuff up last night).

Further, the two ideas (spraying inside the shear pin holes and spraying the outer tube) seem to require two different kinds of grease.

I have a CubCadet two stage and the manual says “Remove shear pins and cotter pins from auger shaft. Spray lubricant inside shaft and around spacers and flange bearings at either end of the shaft(s)”.

Can someone clarify what I’m supposed to be doing here and what kind of lubricant to use?


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## Dauntae (Nov 10, 2016)

ONLY reason to grease the augers is to stop them from rusting together with the shaft, So any good grease will do, Some actually have zerk fitting to use a grease gun and never seize would actually work also but grease works well, Don't worry too much on the grease either as there is NO moving parts to be lubricated other than when you break a shear pin just as long as it's there to stop the rust from forming and it keeps the moisture out.


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## orangputeh (Nov 24, 2016)

just like Dauntae says. i personally use anti=seize grease as my auger shafts on a Honda does not have grease fittings . but any grease will do , I believe.

on everything else i use a lubricating oil that is water resistant . straight WD40 is better thean nothing but I use WD40 with silicone PFTe? or is it PTFE ? haha. The shop uses something called Diamond which is $17 a can. Also very good and did surprisingly well in tests is Liquid Wrench with silicone. cheaper and effective.

make sure you also oil where the cable ends are. if that area dries out and the cable ends can not rotate freely , the cable will grind against metal and you will eventually break the cable. have replaced some cables on friends' machines because of this.


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## fredct (Jan 9, 2017)

Thanks for the information. So it’s sounds like I’m going for the spray video not the grease gun video, right? 

Never Seez is a paint-like consistency isn’t it? So I couldn’t spray in like the instructions say right? Wouldn’t I need more of a spray can sorta thing?


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## 1132le (Feb 23, 2017)

fredct said:


> Thanks for the information. So it’s sounds like I’m going for the spray video not the grease gun video, right?
> 
> Never Seez is a paint-like consistency isn’t it? So I couldn’t spray in like the instructions say right? Wouldn’t I need more of a spray can sorta thing?



If it has zerks you use the gun


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## RedOctobyr (Mar 2, 2014)

Without grease fittings, maybe put one of those red spray sticks on a can of your lube of choice, and stick it in the hole for the (removed) shear pin. Try to aim the tube sideways, along the length of the auger shaft, and give it a good blasting in each direction.You're trying to coat the auger shaft, and the inside of the auger tube. You could also spray through the opposite hole in the augers. 

Another thing you can do to help prevent them from rusting together is to periodically remove the shear pins and spin the augers on the shaft. That will break loose any rust that's forming. You *don't* want to let them rust solidly together. They can be very difficult to break loose for later service, and the rust prevents the shear pins from doing their job. So if you suck in something solid, you're much more likely to break something in the auger gearbox. Expensive, and much more hassle than just changing shear pins.


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## RIT333 (Feb 6, 2014)

As I recall, my Toro PowerMax, did not have any Zercs, so I took off the auger, and drilled into it to install my own zercs. After having spent hours/days removing a rusted auger, the couple of bucks worth of zercs seemed like a very worthwhile investment.


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## fredct (Jan 9, 2017)

Before I saw some of the last responses I bought a can of WD-40 white lithium grease. Since it’s WD-40 it comes with the little straw 🙂.

I’m thinking I’ll use that to spray the ends of the auger and side to side inside the holes from the removed shear pins, rotating the augers around. Does anything think that won’t be a decent enough attempt?

Appreciate the advice but some of it requiring drilling or modifying the blower is far more that I’m willing to take on as a newbie to make several hundred dollar investment.


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## JLawrence08648 (Jan 15, 2017)

My first choice is to drill, tap, install zerk fittings for greasing.

Otherwise turn the snowblower on it's side and drip synthetic oil down the end of the auger shaft.


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## sock-feet (Dec 14, 2017)

Take the auger assembly apart and remove the auger tines. Wire wheel the auger shaft and either grease the heck out of it, or put Zerk fittings in to grease in the future. I have had to remove rusted augers and it is very difficult to separate once they have rusted together.


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## Nshusky (Jan 1, 2017)

Found this thread looking for what others do for greasing the auger shaft.

I picked up a new Honda and the dealer drilled and installed 2 grease zerks on the auger shaft.
I'll grease them until some comes out at the end then?


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## RIT333 (Feb 6, 2014)

Nshusky said:


> Found this thread looking for what others do for greasing the auger shaft.
> 
> I picked up a new Honda and the dealer drilled and installed 2 grease zerks on the auger shaft.
> I'll grease them until some comes out at the end then?



If Honda still uses their same procedure, then the transmission only has 2 stub (short) axles that go into the auger shaft.If you pump it with grease, then you will go through a couple of tubes of grease before it starts coming out of the ends. This is probably why Honda, nor any owners put zerks on the auger shaft. Best to pull off the auger shaft every year or so, and lube it up with grease. And, if it does get rusted on, you will have a lot of auger leverage working against a short shaft, and it should come off fairly easily.


Honda has a good idea with this setup. Not sure why everyone doesn't do it that way.


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## conc (Oct 9, 2018)

Found this thread after having the same questions. Ignoring the rust on the blades themselves, once I have the shear pin out I'll be looking to grease it myself. Picture - https://i.imgur.com/ItJIpAq.jpg

It doesn't look like my snowblower has any holes (called zerks?) for a grease gun. According to the manual there is an optional set of parts that have a grease fitting hole though. 

I have 3-in-1 motor oil, synthetic motor oil, and a tube of white lithium grease laying around. I'll look into silicon liquid wrench or other sprayable grease/lubricants if you guys think those are a bit more appropriate


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## Patski (Dec 13, 2018)

First post here for me, I have a Toro 726 bought at home Depot, and I was asking myself the same thing. When I was engaging the Auger, there was a loud noise when it was "struggling" with heavier snow or wet snow....

there is no zerks on the auger shafts, so, after watching a video on YouTube, I decided to take it apart... 

I thought it would be quite laborious but took me an hour to undo everything and put it back together, I was in the shed, it was around 30F outside and I had no problems... 

You unscrew the 2 bolts on each side of the bucket and after you remove the panel under the snowblower, there is only a spring and one bolt to remove the pulley and the auger Assy is free.

I removed both shear pins and used Anti-seize on the shafts, even for the impaler, and greased both sleeves/bushings holding the auger shafts. 

There was a loose bolt on one end and I think that it could have been the source of the loud noise...

I guess I will see at the next storm, If I need to change the bearing or not.


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