# Ariens 910965 (aka 524 Sno-Thro)



## classiccat (Mar 1, 2014)

This somehow ended-up in the truck when I went out for firewood this am ...

























It's a little rough around the edges but definite potential.

















In a weird twist, it's the same guy that sold my my Allis Chalmers Tracker-7... who just so happens to own a tree service. Hopefully the blood-splatter on the auger housing isn't from a chainsaw accident! :surprise:









He had 3 monkey wards he wanted to sell me ...dirt cheap ...with 7 & 8hp Briggs flatheads. That was painful to pass-up ...not nearly as painful as _wife + cast-iron-skillet_).


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## classiccat (Mar 1, 2014)

Here it is after a WD40 wipedown & lubed auger rakes.














































The blower/tractor is mechanically sound and actually in pretty good condition considering its age / treatment.

There's zero play in the auger/impeller.

The auger rakes spin freely on the shafts!

Auger assy clutch engages (needed some WD to free things up).

There's still alot of meat left on the scraper & no wear on the housing; I do need to weld some metal on the skids.

The handlebars could use some sanding/paint.

The only issue, the speed selector linkage seems to be binding; it goes from N to Rev pretty easily but cannot go into forward gears. The hex shaft is well lubed.


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## classiccat (Mar 1, 2014)

The engine is very likely like the original H50. It's a 0174 serial #... so built on the 174th day of 1970.

























It felt like it had good compression; someone has been in here "recently". The head gasket isn't original and the valves are closing. 

There's very little coke on the head/piston (a thin coating which wiped right-up with seafoam) and I can see scrape marks on the piston.









Unfortunately the fuel tank (metal) had fuel left inside...the entire fuel system is a mess; the carb body will need a good soak in cleaner. 









a nice varnish snail-trail outside of the carb: 









a few shots of the linkage for other guys with similar setups:

















carb pulled for a good soak:









It also does not have spark so engine is pulled with the flywheel removed.

The fuel tank has a few inches of seafoam + some chain for breaking things up. It's already looking usable despite only soaking for a few hrs.

And that's where we are... pretty productive day spent on old-iron (and firewood :devil


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## 43128 (Feb 14, 2014)

chassis looks super clean


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## stromr (Jul 20, 2016)

Always amazes me how something made to be used in wet/freezing conditions and frequently exposed to the elements in summer too can still have so little corrosion after more than 45 years. As a young metal fabricator at Eastman Kodak at the same time as this snowblower was built baked on enamel paint was the norm. Assuming that's what was used on this snowblower it has certainly held up better than the powder coat paint on my 10 year old Cub Cadet.


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## nwcove (Mar 2, 2015)

nice score there ! my rendition of that machine was purchased for $20, tires chained, ventilated block. a chonda repower, impeller kit and new belt......its a beast. sure it wont sling snow 45 ft, but it is my go to machine when the going gets tough.


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## classiccat (Mar 1, 2014)

nwcove said:


> nice score there ! my rendition of that machine was purchased for $20, tires chained, ventilated block. a chonda repower, impeller kit and new belt......its a beast. sure it wont sling snow 45 ft, but it is my go to machine when the going gets tough.


He actually had it listed on CL for $60. I ended up with the Ariens and a bed full of firewood for c-spot...so I think I did alright :smile_big:

I was a little disappointed that it's a 5hp... just gotta take it slow and not bog it down too much. 



stromr said:


> Always amazes me how something made to be used in wet/freezing conditions and frequently exposed to the elements in summer too can still have so little corrosion after more than 45 years. As a young metal fabricator at Eastman Kodak at the same time as this snowblower was built baked on enamel paint was the norm. Assuming that's what was used on this snowblower it has certainly held up better than the powder coat paint on my 10 year old Cub Cadet.


No doubt... stuff they used is like kevlar. I'm guessing the quality of the steel also plays a role. 



43128 said:


> chassis looks super clean


I wonder if the thick coating of grease and mud served as a preservative. :grin:


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## classiccat (Mar 1, 2014)

classiccat said:


> The only issue, the speed selector linkage seems to be binding; it goes from N to Rev pretty easily but cannot go into forward gears. The hex shaft is well lubed.











the housing is worn where this stud counters the linkage for raising the friction disc when changing speeds; the friction disc can't clear the neutral recess on the traction plate. 

EDIT: A washer placed here enables smooth shifting. I'm going to put some weld where the housing is worn..

Here's the seafoam/varnish sludge that came out of the fuel tank...:icon_smile_tongue: Now I have MMO in there taking care of any rust.









Unfortunately, sanding/resetting the points and adjusting the spark advance to 0.080 BTDC didn't help the ignition issue. I may be buying some parts.


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## classiccat (Mar 1, 2014)

classiccat said:


> Unfortunately, *sanding*/resetting the points and adjusting the spark advance to 0.080 BTDC didn't help the ignition issue. I may be buying some parts.


I did a bottom-notch job sanding the points the 1st time... :redface:

The top-contact is after a thorough job... the bottom (cam connection) is the one that I 1/2-arsed. Pitts were large/deep.









Setting the spark advance (I marked the magneto):








...for the points to open at 0.080"









With all of the pitting removed, it's popping a nice blue spark even when spinning the flywheel by hand. 

I just need to wrap-up the fuel system, do a valve job (_had to remove the breather anyway...something made a nest in it and totally-clogged the breather tube...stink-bug?_) & ordering some new gaskets.


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## cranman (Jan 23, 2016)

Glad to see you saved another one CCat....I prefer the ones 20 years newer.....but try and save all the old ones I can!


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## classiccat (Mar 1, 2014)

cranman said:


> Glad to see you saved another one CCat....I prefer the ones 20 years newer.....but try and save all the old ones I can!


The seller has 4 monkey wards (_wanted to sell 3 to me as a package!_)... all with Briggs engines (8, 7,7 and 6? HP). I was tempted to take the 1 with the worst chassis and use the Briggs on this Ariens...that would be one bad machine right there!

If the machine is in good shape like this one, I like to try to keep them whole...even if they are under-powered. :smile2:

Anyways...this carb is spotless after a good soak in carb cleaner and a few cycles in the ultrasonic cleaner (I've been using Dawn liquid soap). It only needs a new float, needle/seat & gaskets.

I lapped & "gapped" the valves...they're in great shape; no play in the valve guides and i was happy to see top & bottom keepers...in addition to the fact that the springs seem to have a little more meat on them relative to a more modern tec.


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## classiccat (Mar 1, 2014)

The parts needed to piece this machine back together arrived throughout the week... 

Dressed the head:









Rebuilt the original carb: 

















set the welch plugs w/ a riveting hammer:









Proper float height:









...the NOS head gasket arrived at 2pm and this old gal was growling at the neighbors by 4 .

Started on the first pull (_well 2nd...the 1st pull was the primer pull with this old engine_) after the rebuild.

The fuel tank was soaking in MMO all week and is coming out clean after multiple rinses...I threw in a big fuel filter just in case. 

The governor spring tension was dead on the money... High-speed / no-load was just below 3500 with the carb adjusted. 

The tractor & blower perform just like they did 47 years ago... Simply Amazing...gotta love old iron!

(_I have a video but I can't seem to load it to Tinypic._)


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## classiccat (Mar 1, 2014)

We finally got some snow for this old girl to chew on.

It was nice snow for a test drive...about 5" and with a wet consistency.

this "little train-that-could" is really starting to grow on me. Enjoy!


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## classiccat (Mar 1, 2014)

Howdy folks, figured I'd drop by SBF and throw a little update your way. 

Out of all of my machines, this has become my workhorse.

I put chains on it last season and it would climb a tree however I didn't like the damage it was doing to my grassy areas.









Fast forward to this season, I had some tires/wheels leftover from an Ariens 932### (7/24) that I brought back to life a few years ago ...all we had to do was ditch the chinzy plastic wheels.









Tools for the job; an HF mini tire changer and NAPA RU-Glyde:









Break the bead.









and getting the 48 year old, hard tires off the rim required some persuasion:









some persistence along with copious amounts of RU-Glyde got the 25 year old carlisles mounted on the 910 rims:

















^^^ No tubes but I did use some bead sealer for insurance; the old rims were a tad crusty in some spots of the bead surface.

And if history repeats itself, we won't see any snow this season. :grin:


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## classiccat (Mar 1, 2014)

boy...knockin' off a thick layer of dust from this old thread! 

I got a “new” toy (mainly for recording fishing) but thought I’d play with it while slinging the white stuff yesterday!

I put up an “unlisted” ride-along video of the '71 mostly original 524 (910 series). We got about 6”…very dense as temps shot up to 40 degrees. 

It’s unlisted b/c it’s 44min long, not an impressive snow amount and I didn’t feel like doing any editing (which even included clearing off my temporary boat shelter 😆. )

if you weirdos are like me, i can watch hours of these videos.






BONUS: you get gold star if you can see when I lost the bolt securing the fuel tank! I must have forgotten to tighten them down when I summerized the engine last spring.


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## Ziggy65 (Jan 18, 2020)

No gold star for me.
Your pup will love that dog run, did the same for our mutts for years with an identical 5/24. We now have a small fenced dog run that gets blown out at our current home.
Great video, I admit fast forwarding when you were using the manual snow tools.  
You sure have that machine working well.
I like your hand clutch work, when tackling the larger pile you pulled off the tent, managing the snow intake. That is one feature I really like about these pre 1973 machines.


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## classiccat (Mar 1, 2014)

Ziggy65 said:


> No gold star for me.
> Your pup will love that dog run, did the same for our mutts for years with an identical 5/24. We now have a small fenced dog run that gets blown out at our current home.
> Great video, I admit fast forwarding when you were using the manual snow tools.
> You sure have that machine working well.
> I like your hand clutch work, when tackling the larger pile you pulled off the tent, managing the snow intake. That is one feature I really like about these pre 1973 machines.


Thanks Ziggy! Max loves his runs! 

I too love the handle clutch! 

One thing that almost cost me some body work to the wife's Jeep...Squeezing the handlebar switch on a Toro doesn't make it stop 😆


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