# HS80 auger shaft / gear box alignment



## strebor71 (Jan 25, 2016)

Hello all, I have been reading through all the different threads about HS80 HS55 blower auger problems and it has been extremely informative, so thank you all for that. The questions that I have unfortunately I have been unable to locate. 
First I guess i should explain my issue. I Have a frankensteined HS55/80 blower that I got from a previous owner. reading through all the threads I have I now understand why it is how it is. The main shaft running from the pulley into the auger gearbox has been welded together, I am assuming due to lack of part availability. but thats not really the issue. The problem I am having is that after getting seized up after a rock lodged in the tines, now the auger will not continue to spin once any amount of snow builds up in the augers. just as if the shear bolts were sheared, however they did not and I am able to spin the augers without the main shaft turning. 
I assumed that something was broken in the auger gear box itself, so I removed the augers and pulled off the gearbox with the auger shaft by removing the three bolts holding the back cover of the gear box with the main drive shaft running through it exposing the main shaft worm gear. I did not notice anything that would lead me to believe anything was wrong. The main gear in the gear box did not appear to be damaged in any way nor was the worm gear on the main drive shaft. I was able to split the auger gear box in two by removing the bolts holding the case together, but I was only able to separate them by maybe an inch or so. 

The only thing that appears to be fishy, is that the main drive shaft, with the worm gear does not appear to be lined up directly over the main drive gear in the auger gearbox when i put it back in with the gear box split so I could inspect how it worked. I was able to get the auger shaft to rotate the main gear just as it is supposed to work even though its not lined up directly under the main drive worm gear. I thought everything was ok so I put it all together again but I am still able to spin the augers without the main drive shaft turning. 

I am assuming that the alignment of the gears is my problem? I was hesitant to try and remove the auger shaft from the gearbox housing because I'm not sure how the shaft is held together with the auger gearbox housing. And with the lack of part availability I don't want to break a seal or whatever is holding the shaft on the housing. 

Any suggestions??


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## bad69cat (Nov 30, 2015)

I bet if you look closely at the teeth on the worm gear and the driven gear you will notice the lack of depth. They make them out of brass so that they will give under stress and hopefully not tear the gear case up. Did you notice any shavings in the grease when you cracked it open?


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## strebor71 (Jan 25, 2016)

They dont appear to be made of brass, they look like stainless to me. That does make sense though, that they would give so the gear box dont get broken. There were no shavings at all in the gearbox or oil, and the oil appeared to be clean and in good shape. Like I mentioned neither of the gears show any signs of wear.


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## strebor71 (Jan 25, 2016)

here is an image of the gearbox. notice how the main gear isnt aligned with the main shaft bushing. Is that normal?


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## strebor71 (Jan 25, 2016)

not sure ifthat worked. here is a link.

https://goo.gl/photos/BJzAETnrUpE2bn7P8


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## strebor71 (Jan 25, 2016)

Is it possible that the auger gear shaft has shifted in the gearbox? is that even possible?


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## Shryp (Jan 1, 2011)

Looking at the picture I wonder if the auger gear or even the whole shaft is flipped 180 degrees. A lot of gears sometimes have a collar on one side and it looks like maybe yours is put together with the collar on the wrong side.


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## strebor71 (Jan 25, 2016)

is it possible to remove the side of the gearbox case without destroying the oil seal so that i can inspect the main gear and how it sits on the drive shaft? perhaps it shifted?


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## strebor71 (Jan 25, 2016)

Shryp said:


> Looking at the picture I wonder if the auger gear or even the whole shaft is flipped 180 degrees. A lot of gears sometimes have a collar on one side and it looks like maybe yours is put together with the collar on the wrong side.


thanks for your reply,
how do I remove the shaft from the gearbox without damaging anything?


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## strebor71 (Jan 25, 2016)

SO, after some light tapping and wiggling, i was able to remove the shaft from the gear box housing. After some inspection I realized that the wudruff key is sheared! next question is, anyone know how to remove a sheared off wudruff key from the shaft? It doesn't want to come out. I got the half from the gear side but the shaft side is stuck in there good and i don't want to damage the shaft.


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## YSHSfan (Jun 25, 2014)

Sheared keyway was my thought.
To remove the broken part what I will do is using a small punch (smaller diameter than the width of the keway) tap lightly on one end of the key, it should slide to the other end (assuming it is a half moon shape), once enough of it is showing tap it out with a small chissel on the exposed end.


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## Shryp (Jan 1, 2011)




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## YSHSfan (Jun 25, 2014)

Shryp, this is for the later style HSXXX blowers a bit different design than the oldes HSXX series. As you can see the augers shaft has splines vs a keyway on the previous models. Great videos though for whoever needs to deal with an HSXXX(XXXX) or an HSS blower.


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## YSHSfan (Jun 25, 2014)

To the OP,
Do not worry too much about the seals on the gearbox as you will likely find them by its size (20x32x7 per say).
If you opened the gearbox you are better off changing all the seals, or you may have to go back later to do it (perhaps in the middle of a snowstorm).


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## strebor71 (Jan 25, 2016)

Shryp said:


> Looking at the picture I wonder if the auger gear or even the whole shaft is flipped 180 degrees. A lot of gears sometimes have a collar on one side and it looks like maybe yours is put together with the collar on the wrong side.


So after I got the sheared key out and found a replacement key, I discovered that if I put the shaft back in flipped 180 from the way it was, the main gear now lined up with the worm gear. so I put it back together only to find that shaft was longer on one side, so I took it back apart and had to take the main gear off the shaft and flip that 180 as well as put the collar on the other side as well. 

apparently when the previous owner did his rebuild he did not pay attention to the alignment of that gear and put it in backwards. It worked but I am guessing that by only having contact with a portion of the worm gear it must have put some odd forces on that gear to make it shear off the key?? 

Anyway, thank you Shryp for the comment, you nailed it. Now everything lines up perfectly and the seals are all intact, the whole fix ended up costing me less than a dollar, the price of the new wudruff key. 

It does make me wonder why it is that the key sheared off instead of the shear bolts on the auger. I tried to find some new shear bolts, to put new ones in, at all the local hardware stores, but was unable to find the ones that have a fatter shoulder on one side like the stock honda ones. Is it possible to use a shear pin that doesn't have that shoulder on it, or will it snap off to easily?


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## Shryp (Jan 1, 2011)

There was a post a few days ago about a different blower that had a woodruff key break on the drive axle. Some of the commends indicated that you can get replacements as normal metal or heat treated to harden them. Wonder if maybe your gearbox should have one of the hardened type in it.


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## strebor71 (Jan 25, 2016)

well, seeing as how all the parts for this blower are no longer available (or at least easily) Maybe its not such a bad thing that the key shears off before busting the whole gear box apart. Now that I know how to fix it its not really all that difficult to do. That is as long as it doesn't keep happening all the time. I would like to get some new shear pins for it, as I am eventually going to need one. any suggestions? are those pins available somewhere?


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## YSHSfan (Jun 25, 2014)

Shear pins

Five Shear Pins Bolts Replaces Honda 90102 732 010 90114 SA0 000 Stens 780 226 | eBay

Or you can go OE.

90102-732-010 HONDA BOLT, LOCK (Honda Code 1533355)


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