# broke shear pin stuck in auger drive shaft hs928tas



## mcmars (Feb 6, 2014)

Hello all, just joined the forum and hoping to get some help w replacing the broken shear pin I have stuck on the drive shaft that makes the augers spin on my hs928. My sociopath neighbor does not like me blowing snow and put a few sections of chain out onto the deep snow knowing it would break my snowblower. The broken pin is not the usual auger pins ( they broke as well), but is the rear shear pin located on the shaft that powers the augers, the pin that has a 14 mm size head and is located way back in the housing just in front of the impeller. I tried my best to knock out the reminants of the pin, but it is frozen into the shaft hole and there is not enough room to get a roller pin drift and hammer into the tight space.

Was thinking maybe I can get a c-clamp in the space tomorrow or try heating up the shaft w a propane torch to expand the shaft. I assume when the pin twisted and broke the metal mushroomed out and wedged itself onto the shaft.

Got huge amount of snow w last few storms and more coming. Would like to fix it tomorrow rather than have to drive 2 hours through blizzard and then be without my snowblower for the next week here in SW CO. I am betting someone here has battled this same problem and might have some tricks. It looks like a 2nd choice might be to remove the 3 bolts on each side of the housing at the auger axle bearing and the 4 bolts on the housing that hold the auger transmission in place and then maybe the outer drive shaft housing will pull apart/forward to get better access??? Or, god forbid, I would have to remove a zillion bolts to completely remove the entire housing.

I tried searching best I could, but could not find any links. Any links or help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much in advance. Hope I put this in the proper forum category, figured this is specific to the Honda hs928.


----------



## td5771 (Feb 21, 2011)

welcome to the forum. someone answered you post about the pin and he said what I would have.

A c clamp with a small pin to drive the old one out and a socket on the other end so the pin has somewhere to come out should work.


----------



## mcmars (Feb 6, 2014)

*broken auger shear pin*

Thanks for quick response. While you were posting a Google search landed me an answer in the repair section with great pictures and details by a member named thumper w pictures on how to remove the entire assembly in case the c clamp method fails to work. Great forum. Maybe I can figure out how to repair the foot height adjuster which broke a few years ago.as well. Thanks so much. Excited to tackle this in the AM, just hope the psycho neighbor has not thrown out more chains for me.


----------



## TimY (Oct 27, 2013)

Wow what kind of nut would do something like that. Not only wreak your machine but the potential for great bodily harm. You have to tell the rest that story. I would report that idiot to the authorities!!!. Back to your issue justhad to do something similar to remove a broken rusted knurled headed bolt stud out of a flange. Get a heavy duty C clamp that will span the shaft plus the diameter of the shaft (for the length of the pin) weld a black pipe nipple with a concave ground on one end (to fit around the shaft better) to the fixed end of the clamp. remove the swivel end off the screw of the clamp back the screw section out grind off the (most have a ball end) the end drill a hole for a section of a old drill bit smaller than the the pin your trying to push out. Alternately once you back the screw section out of the C-Clamp and had a long enough drill bit drill a relief hole for the pin in the fixed end of the clamp. Sounds harder than it is took 20 min or so to make. good luck


----------



## Mr Fixit (Nov 19, 2013)

I can't find the pair I wanted but it's the similar idea. The best ones have a three surface grip in a triangle. This might apply enough pressure to start it coming out. Add a 3/8 nut on one side and a 1/2 long 1/4" bolt under the opposite side. Vise grips shown.


----------



## mcmars (Feb 6, 2014)

Thx for great help. I spent Thursday selling a very nice snowplow I never used, but was able to tackle repairing the hs928ta yesterday. After reading here how the auger shaft can get rusted up without proper maintenance, I opted to remove the entire auger assembly from the unit so I could get better access to remove the broken shear pin and so I could also lube the auger shaft w anti seize and inspect the 2 auger bearings.

Everything came apart real easy, 4 bolts from each side of the housing and then the 4 bolts at the top of the housing that hold the gear box in place. Grabbed the auger assembly and everything came out real smooth. I was able to get the stuck pin to loosen up a bit by having it soak for a couple of days in penetrating and the lightly tapping it from each side with a "pin" (small square head drill bit) I held w needle nose vice grips. I could tell it was starting to loosen up a bit, figured out which way it wanted to go and the gave one good sold tap and out it comes. I was careful not to sack to hard or much as I did not want to stress the bearing for the impeller shaft. The pin sure had some obvious mushrooming and was stoked I got it out with out having to do the c-clamp trick or use heat.

The two bearings for the auger shaft felt like new, but I definitely had to pound off one side of the auger shaft to get it apart, was rusted on pretty good, but a dozen wacks w a small ball peen hammer did the trick. Then I used some wd-40 and a few small wire brushes to clean up the various rusted surfaces till everything was a shiney like new. I found the small plumbers round wire brush designed to clean up 1/2" copper pipe worked real good for the inside areas and a cheap small wire brush from.harbor freight w a 4" long by 1/2" brush head did the outer surfaces. Took about 1/2 hour on manual labor, maybe a dremal attachment might have been quicker.

Will messing around in the garage, I Iocated a whole assortment of Honda auger shear bolts an even had the impeller shear pin which I needed for the rear broken pin. Also found a large can of primer, so I cleaned up both augers, the inside the the hood where the impeller spins and the inside of the chute w sand paper and brake clean. Used up the primer spraying multiple coats on everything after taping off the areas I wanted to miss and set up a small space heater to try to cure the primer overnight.

Checked on it this morning and everything looks good. I about killed my self w primer fumes ( no mask) and ran my housemate out of the home, thought the fire door into my home would keep out the fumes, but pretty toxic inside. I think I will skip having to drive 30 minutes to.town to buy paint and just put it back.together for now as I can pull it apart next summer and paint it in a better environment and have the paint set up in the heat.

I found some 5-30 oil in my shop to change the oil for now, but ordered some royal purple 5-30 and a new plug on Amazon. I took some pics I could post if anyone would like to see how easy it was to do the work. Probably would be an hour job to remove the auger assembly, pound out the broken shear pin and put it together. I probably have 2 1/2 into it w all the extra TLC I put into it. Local Honda mechanic charges $85/hr, so.really saved some bucks. Not sure how to post picks from my smartphone, maybe a link or tip would help.

As far as the crazy neighbor, cops are investigating him for criminal mischief. He told cop the chains were his new dog collar. Cop does not believe him, but hard to prove intent. They could charge him w false reporting now for two false complaints he made 2 months ago when we got 2 ft of snow. Called.in twice to report I was shooting, gravel, snow and ice in a 4 day period, plus came over several times to scream and harrass me yelling, " You are going to break my windows....blah, blah..". Luckily cops came out then and confirmed I was no where near his home with my blown snow. Same cop came out this time and was not real happy w his story and picture of his dog w the 5 lbs of chains wrapped around the dogs neck. I figured you need to think like a sociopath to catch him in his game so I got a plan and have some cop strength pepper ace if he comes out to be physical. What a pain, but at least my blower is getting some love from the bad situation. It just keeps snowing here at 9400 ft.


----------



## dbert (Aug 25, 2013)

Slather a bunch of grease or antiseize on that primer to keep it rust free.

It none of my business, but in another thread you said about your bad neighbor;


> and threatened by his neighbor *gal* w a nice snowblower


 It's possible there are a few gals out there with nice snow blowers, but I cant imagine there are too many that would do maintenance on them like you do.
9400 feet! When you go to someplace closer to sea level do you feel like superman?...err superwoman?




> Not sure how to post picks from my smartphone, maybe a link or tip would help.


There are a few different ways to include a picture with your post. One of the easiest is to select the "go advanced" button, and "attach" them with the paper clip icon just like you would in an email. It will only show a small thumbnail, but we can just click on the thumbnail to see a larger version.


----------



## dbert (Aug 25, 2013)

attaching picture snips


----------



## mcmars (Feb 6, 2014)

*thanks so much*

You guys are really great and helpful. Well headache from primer sniffing gone and decided to go ahead w spraying some paint today. Just a perfectionist and worried the snow might stick to rough primer surface, so bought a few cans of spray paint yesterday, rustoleum in a regal red and a epoxy gloss black for the augers. This time I will at least open the door for ventilation and wear a particle mask. Do not want the snow sticking to the primer as it has a rough surface. It just keeps snowing, so I would rather just wait for it to stop and blow it all just once anyway.

Always been mechanical, as a young girl very curious how things worked and would try to fix things as they broke. My older brother taught me a tune up stuff on first car at 16, rebuilt a motorcycle engine at 18, VW engine at 19, then Datsun engine at 21 etc. Really just to cheap to "pay to train" young learning mechanics how to learn/practice mechanics on my vehicles and equipment, lol. I have been very lucky to have had many gifted mechanic friends who have let me use their shop space and help me along. Now we have great forums w guru mechanics to help us, what a deal.

I do not really notice much difference going down to lower elevations. Now coming up to elevation after being away, that is where you notice the altitude,it can really make me feel winded for a few weeks till I get adjusted. We have a slogan here when things go wrong,"BIOTA". stands for ,"Blame It On the Altitude".

Thx for attachment help, I will try later. But better go paint the machine for now.


----------



## TimY (Oct 27, 2013)

This a great forum. I often say if you got all these guys and gals in the same room a fight would break out over who's nicer and more helpful


----------



## gregwun (2 mo ago)

mcmars said:


> Hello all, just joined the forum and hoping to get some help w replacing the broken shear pin I have stuck on the drive shaft that makes the augers spin on my hs928. My sociopath neighbor does not like me blowing snow and put a few sections of chain out onto the deep snow knowing it would break my snowblower. The broken pin is not the usual auger pins ( they broke as well), but is the rear shear pin located on the shaft that powers the augers, the pin that has a 14 mm size head and is located way back in the housing just in front of the impeller. I tried my best to knock out the reminants of the pin, but it is frozen into the shaft hole and there is not enough room to get a roller pin drift and hammer into the tight space.
> 
> Was thinking maybe I can get a c-clamp in the space tomorrow or try heating up the shaft w a propane torch to expand the shaft. I assume when the pin twisted and broke the metal mushroomed out and wedged itself onto the shaft.
> 
> ...


The fine folks at Truckee Rents loaned me a 2-foot long steel punch and instructed me to put the punch through the chute. I needed a light and my iPhone to see if the broken shear pin was aligned with the chute/punch. (They said you may have to take off the pulley cover (4 bolts) to rotate the drive pulley in order to get the broken shear pin lined up with the chute/punch.) But mine was pretty much aligned and with a few hammer taps it came out. Thanks Truckee Rents.


----------

