# '79 Ariens 724 - Engine stalls when engaging auger



## Ariens724 (Jan 8, 2018)

I have a 1979 Ariens 724 that I picked up from a resale shop for $75 and it was in good running condition; however, after using it through our first snowfall I noticed that the chute wasn't throwing the snow much further than about 5-7 ft, so I decided to do the "Impeller Kit" on the impeller. Everything was going well until I tried running the auger again, when I engaged it the engine stalled out and now it appears to be bound.

I must add that when I was installing the impeller kit, I was turning the impeller in the opposite direction of normal operation and I believe I somehow bound up the differential. Today I plan on splitting it apart to see if maybe something has fallen out of alignment.

NOTE: If I spin the impeller in the opposite direction of normal operation, it spins the auger backwards without a problem, spinning in the right direction appears to be the problem. Please help as I'm sure it has to be something minor.

Thanks in advance for any help


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## dhazelton (Dec 8, 2014)

Did you leave any gap when you did the rubber or were you expecting it to 'wear in' to the housing? It sounds like you just made the paddles to tight to the housing - what did you use for the rubber? Maybe the housing isn't perfectly round too....


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## Ariens724 (Jan 8, 2018)

dhazelton said:


> Did you leave any gap when you did the rubber or were you expecting it to 'wear in' to the housing? It sounds like you just made the paddles to tight to the housing - what did you use for the rubber? Maybe the housing isn't perfectly round too....


Thanks for the response, I didn't leave a gap and did expect them to wear-in as you called it; however, the material I used is rather soft (Rubber Stair Treads) that's about 1/8" thick, I used 2 layers on each paddle (4). It rotates freely by hand in the wrong direction and the housing isn't damaged. If the rubber were the problem, I'd assume that the 7hp Tecumseh wouldn't be bothered by that as it's a pretty strong engine. The fact that the engine stalls makes me assume that the differential is bound, but I don't want to take anything apart yet.


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## 43128 (Feb 14, 2014)

the first few times you will more then likely stall the engine. does keep on engaging until the engne stops stalling, in my experience it usually takes about 2 or 3 times, especially with an older flathead tecumseh


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## Jackmels (Feb 18, 2013)

Generously Spray the Impeller Walls, and Seals with WD40, or PB Blaster When Breaking in an Impeller Seal.


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## Ariens724 (Jan 8, 2018)

43128 said:


> the first few times you will more then likely stall the engine. does keep on engaging until the engne stops stalling, in my experience it usually takes about 2 or 3 times, especially with an older flathead tecumseh


I tried it more than a handful of times and decided to stop right there as I was afraid to damage something else and the thing is clearly telling me something is stopping it :confused2:


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## Ariens724 (Jan 8, 2018)

​


Jackmels said:


> Generously Spray the Impeller Walls, and Seals with WD40, or PB Blaster When Breaking in an Impeller Seal.


Good point, I'll give that a try


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## dhazelton (Dec 8, 2014)

If the WD doesn't do it pull off the rubbers and see if the engine still stops. If it doesn't you found the answer - if it does pull off the belt guard and looky see if anything is going on there.


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## Shryp (Jan 1, 2011)

Try manually pushing the impeller the correct way first. The rubber will generally fold over a little so yours are probably folded over backwards and when it tries to spin the correct way they are attempting to fold over and wedging themselves in there as they widen up a little.


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## Ariens724 (Jan 8, 2018)

Thanks to everyone who suggested the WD40! As simple as it may seem, it simply hadn't occurred to me. That was all, the initial start was the hump the engine needed to get through and after that it spun just fine. I ended up taking them off as they were very noisy and started to chip almost immediately. I will wait out the next snowfall and may end up leaving the snowblower as is. It's a great machine to begin with and it runs very well


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## RedOctobyr (Mar 2, 2014)

Glad you got it spinning! Too bad about removing the rubber, though. I used 3-ply "baler belt" material for my impeller kit, it's been working well for 3 years, with no apparent wear. 

Baler belt is reinforced rubber, with cotton (?) threads going through the middle. And it's fairly thin. I sized it to drag just slightly. I also slotted the rubber, so I could adjust the fit by loosening the bolts, sliding the rubber to get the fit I want (even if it wears some), then tightening down again. 

It was probably a little noisy the first few times I spun it, now it just throws better. I don't think I've had any chute clogging since doing it.


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## Ariens724 (Jan 8, 2018)

RedOctobyr said:


> Glad you got it spinning! Too bad about removing the rubber, though. I used 3-ply "baler belt" material for my impeller kit, it's been working well for 3 years, with no apparent wear.
> 
> Baler belt is reinforced rubber, with cotton (?) threads going through the middle. And it's fairly thin. I sized it to drag just slightly. I also slotted the rubber, so I could adjust the fit by loosening the bolts, sliding the rubber to get the fit I want (even if it wears some), then tightening down again.
> 
> It was probably a little noisy the first few times I spun it, now it just throws better. I don't think I've had any chute clogging since doing it.


I will look for a different material to use since I already have a template to cut them to fit and make the holes for the screws as well. As for the noise, it could also be attributed to the harder material that I used first (although it seemed soft)


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## RedOctobyr (Mar 2, 2014)

I don't know what it would cost. But if you want to pay for shipping, I can mail you a length of the leftover baler belt. I had to buy like 15 feet, and probably needed 1. 

I bought it at Tractor Supply Company, if you have one nearby.


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## skutflut (Oct 16, 2015)

Ariens724 said:


> I will look for a different material to use since I already have a template to cut them to fit and make the holes for the screws as well. As for the noise, it could also be attributed to the harder material that I used first (although it seemed soft)


IMHO, it isn't necessary to have the paddles fit snug against the inside of the impeller housing. 

Trim them just a bit so you have maybe 1/16 clearance. My machine (Husqvarna with Craftsman branding) needed some clearance because it has 4 round head shoulder bolts coming thru the housing to bolt the chute base to the housing, and a reinforcing piece of steel on the trailing edge of the inside of the chute base. All these obstructions forced me to trim back the paddles by about 1/16" to clear them. I also had to notch the ends of the paddles even more to clear the rounded bolt heads. The original gap was over 1/2 inch 

Even with that gap on the paddles, the machine will still pump water and slush where it used to choke on them. Added bonus is that the paint stays where it is on the inside of the impeller housing.


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## 43128 (Feb 14, 2014)

after a storm or two the paddles will quiet down significantly. you must use rubbers thats somehow reinforced


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## Ariens724 (Jan 8, 2018)

RedOctobyr said:


> I don't know what it would cost. But if you want to pay for shipping, I can mail you a length of the leftover baler belt. I had to buy like 15 feet, and probably needed 1.
> 
> I bought it at Tractor Supply Company, if you have one nearby.


Thanks for the offer, I did manage to try again and this time I found that I was measuring off of the wrong location, so I set the rubber against the paddle, spun the impeller about halfway down and then made new holes. Now all 4 of the paddles go all the way around just barely making contact with the inside of the housing. It couldn't have gone better. We're expecting another storm next week, so I'll update after that


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## Ariens724 (Jan 8, 2018)

skutflut said:


> IMHO, it isn't necessary to have the paddles fit snug against the inside of the impeller housing.
> 
> Trim them just a bit so you have maybe 1/16 clearance. My machine (Husqvarna with Craftsman branding) needed some clearance because it has 4 round head shoulder bolts coming thru the housing to bolt the chute base to the housing, and a reinforcing piece of steel on the trailing edge of the inside of the chute base. All these obstructions forced me to trim back the paddles by about 1/16" to clear them. I also had to notch the ends of the paddles even more to clear the rounded bolt heads. The original gap was over 1/2 inch
> 
> Even with that gap on the paddles, the machine will still pump water and slush where it used to choke on them. Added bonus is that the paint stays where it is on the inside of the impeller housing.


You're correct, I was doing it wrong by leaving so much excess make contact with the housing, which explains why the engine was having such a hard time moving the impeller in the first place. I cut out a whole new set and this time installed them to just graze the surface of the housing, so now it's perfect. I also turned it on and ran it a full throttle for a few minutes. This time around it worked perfectly. Although the wife isn't too excited about the next storm, I kinda am :grin:


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## skutflut (Oct 16, 2015)

Ariens724 said:


> You're correct, I was doing it wrong by leaving so much excess make contact with the housing, which explains why the engine was having such a hard time moving the impeller in the first place. I cut out a whole new set and this time installed them to just graze the surface of the housing, so now it's perfect. I also turned it on and ran it a full throttle for a few minutes. This time around it worked perfectly. Although the wife isn't too excited about the next storm, I kinda am :grin:


I kinda have to agree with your wife on enthusiasm about snow storms. I could live without snow easily. Would like to be spending February and March in Arizona again, but a couple of health problems came up so I have to stick close to the local health care system for at least 6 months so my out of country insurance will be valid again.

I bought my first blower in 1983 as a kind of insurance hedge that once you have a machine to deal with snow, you won't have any snow to deal with. Sort of worked a bit, but not always. The machine beat the heck out of shoveling. Came in really handy in 1999 when Toronto and area had a huge dumping of snow that the former mayor of Toronto called in the Armed Forces to help clean up. 

My new machine (9 years ago) had issues with some kinds of snow, and the impeller kit sorted those out for the most part. Had to add a few other bits of plastic to shield the drive disk from all the water drips now that wet slush and water actually make it up the chute. Some quantity of water was running out the bottom of the chute and drowning the drive disk for the wheels, so I suddenly ended up with no traction in soupy stuff.


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## vinnycom (Nov 6, 2017)

i just did my mod, used an old tire i had laying around, sort of a pia to cut but its doable and its what i had on hand. threw slush, heavy wet snow fairly far yesterday, for being heavy wet snow that is.


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## Ariens724 (Jan 8, 2018)

skutflut said:


> I kinda have to agree with your wife on enthusiasm about snow storms. I could live without snow easily. Would like to be spending February and March in Arizona again, but a couple of health problems came up so I have to stick close to the local health care system for at least 6 months so my out of country insurance will be valid again.
> 
> I bought my first blower in 1983 as a kind of insurance hedge that once you have a machine to deal with snow, you won't have any snow to deal with. Sort of worked a bit, but not always. The machine beat the heck out of shoveling. Came in really handy in 1999 when Toronto and area had a huge dumping of snow that the former mayor of Toronto called in the Armed Forces to help clean up.
> 
> My new machine (9 years ago) had issues with some kinds of snow, and the impeller kit sorted those out for the most part. Had to add a few other bits of plastic to shield the drive disk from all the water drips now that wet slush and water actually make it up the chute. Some quantity of water was running out the bottom of the chute and drowning the drive disk for the wheels, so I suddenly ended up with no traction in soupy stuff.


I guess the only reason why I'm excited about snow is because I've lived in the south my whole life, except for about a 10 month period that I lived in Sudbury, ON but I lived in a hotel and drove rentals, so I never took concern with the snow as I depended on the plow trucks. As for the year you bought your first blower, I was born a year later, so I guess that would be another reason why I'm in love with these older small engines, the newer, more "modern" stuff is just made of thin metal and plastic. I can tell you for sure though, after this winter, I want to spend the next one back in TX.

Best of luck with your health and I hope you feel better.


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## Ariens724 (Jan 8, 2018)

vinnycom said:


> i just did my mod, used an old tire i had laying around, sort of a pia to cut but its doable and its what i had on hand. threw slush, heavy wet snow fairly far yesterday, for being heavy wet snow that is.


That's good to hear, when I first heard of the impeller kit/mod I immediately wanted to do it and I wonder why it hasn't become a part that a manufacturer installs on their machines. The tire seems like a better choice as it's designed to hold together unlike other materials. I'll see how mine does if I have to use it again, in the meantime I'm restoring some of the other parts with paint and oil


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## skutflut (Oct 16, 2015)

Ariens724 said:


> That's good to hear, when I first heard of the impeller kit/mod I immediately wanted to do it and I wonder why it hasn't become a part that a manufacturer installs on their machines. The tire seems like a better choice as it's designed to hold together unlike other materials. I'll see how mine does if I have to use it again, in the meantime I'm restoring some of the other parts with paint and oil



I first tried using a piece of tire sidewall, but I gave up on it because of the varying thickness of the rubber. My wife wasnt too pleased about the big hole in her tire sidewall either. :smiley-shocked029: Nice and strong, but hard to get it bolted down evenly. Second generation used a truck mud flap. That worked very well, as it was reinforced, like the tire sidewall, but it was flat, uniform thickness, and easy to cut.


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## vinnycom (Nov 6, 2017)

skutflut said:


> I first tried using a piece of tire sidewall, but I gave up on it because of the varying thickness of the rubber. My wife wasnt too pleased about the big hole in her tire sidewall either. :smiley-shocked029: Nice and strong, but hard to get it bolted down evenly. Second generation used a truck mud flap. That worked very well, as it was reinforced, like the tire sidewall, but it was flat, uniform thickness, and easy to cut.


i used a angle grinder fitted w/a cutoff disk. fyi, do it outside and where your work clothes and gloves. hot melted rubber shtanks but good.
pre drilled the impeller blades, its not the stamped metal stuff btw, then used self tapping screws w/washers, both rubber and metal are not easy to cut though but i got her done


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## skutflut (Oct 16, 2015)

vinnycom said:


> i used a angle grinder fitted w/a cutoff disk. fyi, do it outside and where your work clothes and gloves. hot melted rubber shtanks but good.
> pre drilled the impeller blades, its not the stamped metal stuff btw, then used self tapping screws w/washers, both rubber and metal are not easy to cut though but i got her done


The mudflap was way easier, no stink, no bits of rubber between the teeth, and the whole mud flap cost $5.00 bucks new. Enough rubber for about 4 sets of paddles, if I could only find the piece thats left over.


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## vinnycom (Nov 6, 2017)

skutflut said:


> The mudflap was way easier, no stink, no bits of rubber between the teeth, and the whole mud flap cost $5.00 bucks new. Enough rubber for about 4 sets of paddles, if I could only find the piece thats left over.


i couldnt find cheapo mud flaps but wasnt really looking, plus i decided at the spur of the moment as i already had a bad tire that i could use for the mod. i made a vid on howto (not) cut a tire


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