# John Deere 44" snowblower gear box



## mat3

Anyone else had problem with J.D. 44" snow blower gear box? I've blown three in the last couple of years - two this season alone. I took one apart and it looks cheap. Dealer said J.D. had not re-engineered this. It lets go before shear bolts break, and I asked for the weakest shear bolts.

Any ideas for a solution other than throwing a fit at the dealer which probably won't get me anywhere. I've got an X360 22 H.P. tractor with a snow blower that let's go under a little stress. Pretty poor.


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## HCBPH

*Gearbox*

Being no one has said anything, I'll throw in a comment. First off I don't know your machine but I believe the 1032 walk behind had either at one time had as standard or optional a steel auger gearbox. If it's dimensionally the same, might try that. Other thing is I suspect most companies buy them rather than make them so one from another machine might be an option but you'd have to figure out which ones fit or don't.

Good luck


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## led1002

I had the same failure on my JD 44" Snowblower (mounted to 2007 X304 JD) last February. Living in NJ I figured I had about 10 hours of time on the gearbox blowing snow and made a plea to the dealer. He was able to get me $125 special discount on the $275 gearbox to ease my pain. He also found out that JD had made changes to the gearbox to improve the performance of the blower, they also use different shear bolts, presumably to protect the gearbox. I installed the gearbox and new shear bolts the last week in February 2014 and only used it once on about 2" of snow, but could tell that it worked much better. 
Well this past Saturday was the second time I was able to use the snowblower on about 5" of wet snow and the gearbox blew again!! I doubt it had a full hour use. JD dealer says the warranty on the replacement part is only 90 days. I have lost faith in JD now and am considering my options, maybe a Berco unit.


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