# New to me 1982 Ariens



## Toxic (Jan 30, 2015)

Hey all. My brother just picked up this blower for me for 150 bucks. I have a 3/4 km driveway to clean so rugged snow blowers are a must for me..I also need it to be reliable so i was wondering if there is any thing i should change or do to insure a solid winters work out of it. I don't have the blower in my shop yet as its at my brothers house a couple hours away. But if there are any know problems i should be aware of to this model i would like to know about them. Thanks guys. It is a 1982 or 83 areins st 10 32. Thanks again


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## 1894 (Dec 16, 2014)

You asked the right forum !! The good folks here can and will help you. :welcome:


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## jenkinsm2 (Dec 7, 2014)

Toxic said:


> Hey all. My brother just picked up this blower for me for 150 bucks. I have a 3/4 km driveway to clean so rugged snow blowers are a must for me..I also need it to be reliable so i was wondering if there is any thing i should change or do to insure a solid winters work out of it. I don't have the blower in my shop yet as its at my brothers house a couple hours away. But if there are any know problems i should be aware of to this model i would like to know about them. Thanks guys. It is a 1982 or 83 areins st 10 32. Thanks again


I have an 8hp from around that era, check the wheels to see if they have any play (loose) when the blower is sitting upright. I had to change a bearing on one side. 

Just one tip for a machine that age, and maybe watch the donyboy clip on youtube on looking over used snowblowers, I learned alot from that.


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## Toxic (Jan 30, 2015)

I have the model number now if that helps any. They do still make parts for these snowblowers right? There is a dealer right handy to me and this is one of the main reason i am gonna go with ariens over my older craftsman..


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## Rob711 (Feb 5, 2015)

I've gotten bearing, bushings, belt and scraper bar on amazon for my early 70s ariens. Best price I could find online, if u can read the numbers on the bearings u might be able to get locally from transmission shops.


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## Toxic (Jan 30, 2015)

That is good to know. I see they use standard sealed bearings for the wheels too. that is good. Both my craftsman use bushings..I also found a site online that looks to have any and every part required for one of these units. So worst case senario i can use them to buy the hard to find on the shelf parts..


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## Toxic (Jan 30, 2015)

Got the blower today..Definitly needs an impeller bearing at the very least. I am assuming that there should be zero play in the auger bearing?


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## ELaw (Feb 4, 2015)

"Auger bearing" as in the bushings that support each end of the auger shaft? For those, "zero play" is great but a few thousandths is tolerable too. It's not an ultra-high-precision system. OTOH the bushings are cheap so if you're in doubt just replace 'em.

Make sure you give it a really good looking-over. Hopefully you'll do better than I did... I just bought a newer version of the same model (circa 1994) and it's an absolute basket case. Weird stuff like not only worn bearings (impeller, axle) but the shafts are worn where they go _through_ the bearings, so even brand-new bearings don't fit tightly.

Also check the oil in the auger gearbox and verify that 1) it's present and 2) it's black or clear/amber and not milk-chocolate color. The latter indicates water's gotten in there and that can mean great nastiness.

One more thing to look at is the internal mechanism that engages & disengages the wheel drive. Basically the drive plate, pulley for the belt to the engine, and the shaft they're on are in a "carrier" that slides back and forth a little inside a sleeve to engage or disengage the plate from the rubber disc. The carrier/sleeve don't have any provision for lubrication and tend to get stuck/corroded. So I'd recommend pulling that whole setup apart, clean up any corrosion that's present, and grease it well.

Oh and as with almost any snowblower, remove the auger shear pins and make sure the augers can spin freely on the shaft. If they can't, the shear pins may not do their job when the time comes.


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## Toxic (Jan 30, 2015)

Excellent advise Elaw. I started into it today..had a **** of a time getting the triangle peice that holds the pulley off..fought with it for hours with a puller even broke chucks off it but i got it off. Now i can replace the auger bearing..which was completly shot. So parts list so far

side impeller bushings x2 7.99 each
auger impeller bearing x1 9.99
tremclad black paint 25.99 gallon
new auger belt(just cause) 11.99
80-140 EP gear oil left over from my f250 axle

I expected to put at least a couple hundred into the machine. Even if i get one year out of it my driveway is huge and i will spend 4-6 hours on it every time it snow..so getting a full year out of a snowblower is alot for me.

here are a couple pics..I plan on going through the whole machine as i have time. My wife did have a pretty close arien color mixed up from some left over red and yellow tremclad but i like painiting everything black. Its gonna be a tactical snowblower..lol


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## Toxic (Jan 30, 2015)

Tactical black snowblower


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## ELaw (Feb 4, 2015)

That's great!

It's funny they call that "safety orange" but for best safety you want a contrasting color and what contrasts best with white snow? Black.

I'm jealous of how un-rusty that bucket is. The one I'm currently rehabilitating is ~12 years newer and in considerably worse shape. I'm sure how much it was used and stored outside is a factor, but it really seems the quality of the Ariens finishes went downhill over the years.

And re the pulley hub thing, yeah they do that. The one on mine was well and goodly stuck so I put a 3-jaw puller on it and the next thing I knew it was in two pieces - one of which was still stuck on the shaft! Luckily I had a spare or I would have been buying a new one.


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## jenkinsm2 (Dec 7, 2014)

Toxic said:


> Excellent advise Elaw. I started into it today..had a **** of a time getting the triangle peice that holds the pulley off..fought with it for hours with a puller even broke chucks off it but i got it off. Now i can replace the auger bearing..which was completly shot. So parts list so far
> 
> side impeller bushings x2 7.99 each
> auger impeller bearing x1 9.99
> ...


Did you check the wheel bearings? Also, make sure the gearcase is working as it should, especially while you have this thing apart. Other than that it seems like you are making progress and the other people here know what else to check out.


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## Toxic (Jan 30, 2015)

I havent got to the wheels on the tractor side yet but i will....Gearcase is good. Had it up and running while moveing it around. I am gonna run the lightweight gearoil i put in there for a few mins to flush it then drain and add the 90-140 weight stuff and hopefully that will be it for that for a while..I was wondering if any one knew if the snowblower chute had any replaceable bushing on it. it seems to rattle around a bit cause it is loose..i know it wont be a problem once i start throwing snow but it got me wondering..now is the time for me to fix it cause its gotta be working during winter..lol


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## ELaw (Feb 4, 2015)

No replaceable bushings on the chute, and it's normal for them to be a bit loose.

If you take the chute off, you'll see it's held on by metal pieces that are attached with screws to the bottom of the chute. It's possible those pieces are worn or installed upside-down.

Just for reference, I just checked the least-used Ariens I have and if you rock the chute back and forth it moves about 1/2" at the top. So I'd consider that amount of play or a little more acceptable.

If you're concerned with looseness because the worm gear at the bottom isn't working well (too loose or getting hung up), you can loosen the attaching nut underneath it and move it around to get better engagement.


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## Toxic (Jan 30, 2015)

Thanks for checking Elaw. That sounds about the same amount of play mine has.. I wont worry about it.. the worm gear thing works surprisingly good. I dont mind the extra cranking cause i know even if that gear has iced up its gonna work..lol


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## Toxic (Jan 30, 2015)

Well ran into a problem today. I cant for the life of me get the two front auger shafts off..they are definitly seized on there. I even already painted it..i completly overlooked checking the shear pins till someone mentioned it above...I spent most of the morning heating and spraying them through the shear pin holes and the grease fittings..I think i will pack the shear pin holes full of synthetic grease and electrical tape it closed and run the blower with the hopes that the shafts will free up and if they dont i will take the risk of breaking something..lol.. I do have a dirt/gravel driveway but i will put another blower on the first few storms duty..


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## ELaw (Feb 4, 2015)

Oh man that stinks!

When mine had that problem, a welder friend and I heated the daylights out of one of the augers with an acetylene torch while trying to drive the shaft out, and we actually managed to bend the shaft while it was still inside the auger, thus making it even more stuck! I later realized the other auger wasn't stuck nearly as badly and eventually got the whole thing apart but the shaft was ruined.

There is one small bit of good news: if you ever need to take apart the gearbox, you only need to get one auger off the shaft to do that, and it doesn't matter which one.


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## 1894 (Dec 16, 2014)

Toxic said:


> Tactical black snowblower


 Maybe go snow camo ? That way you can sneak up closer to those drifts and EOD before you blast them away :icon-cheers:


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## Toxic (Jan 30, 2015)

I was thinkinking about taking it over to a buddy of mine who has torches but after hearing that im not so sure i wanna try..LOL..i was able to get a tiny bit of grease to squeeze out through one end on one side tho..If this shaft is on as tight as that pulley hub it can freakin stay there...altho i know what happens in a jam as i have already gernaded one craftsman differential last winter cause i used too strong of a bolt instead of a shear pin..


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## Toxic (Jan 30, 2015)

any risk of damageing the seals by heating it? I had the diff upside down and the new gear oil i put in did leak out where the driveshaft enters..but it was upside down..i put it upright on a stand and spun it after and no oil cam out..

was also wondering if i leave the belt a little loose it should slip before taking out the gear box right? Just gotta find a sweet spot on the adjustor pulley


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## ELaw (Feb 4, 2015)

Absolutely! The good news is the seals are cheap (< $10 each if I recall correctly).

Oil leaking out with the gearbox upside-down indicates a problem too. Not that you're likely to be running it upside-down (I hope!) but if oil can get out then water can get in.

That's what happened on mine... the impeller shaft was damaged and chewed up the seal, and water got into the gearbox. Suffice it to say that when this thing goes back together, the only part of the gearbox not getting replaced is the housing.


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## YSHSfan (Jun 25, 2014)

_*donyboy73*_ has some very instructional videos on youtube.
You should research, he may have a video on how to change the seal on the auger gear box.


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