# Auger box leak



## ourkid2000 (Feb 27, 2017)

Uh oh....

Found this a few days ago on my new (to me) Toro 8-26 OXE. Crud!

I was taking the blower apart a few days ago to replace the auger bearing (only as preventative maintenance) and I had some trouble with the auger pulley coming off. I ended up hitting it in the center with my air hammer (light duty) while pulling up with a pry bar. It came off very easily.

After I had buttoned everything back up, the next day I found the leaking gear oil. It appears to be coming from the left-hand oil seal. I completely disassembled the auger gear box and I could literally not find anything wrong......looks tip top to me (the pics of the auger box taken apart are from when I first cracked it open). Only thing I can figure is my air hammering has screwed up one of the oil seals.

I have all the parts I need (3 x oil seals, new gasket) ordered up but dang, this sucks!


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## ourkid2000 (Feb 27, 2017)

Jeez,

What's the deal with not being able to post attachment pics??


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## 524SWE (Jan 20, 2017)

ourkid2000 said:


> Jeez,
> 
> What's the deal with not being able to post attachment pics??


Even though they say it's been fixed it still appears to require 10 posts before you can attach pics thru this website, just go say "boy howdy neighbor" and you'll get your 10 posts.


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## UNDERTAKER (Dec 30, 2013)

ourkid2000 said:


> Jeez,
> 
> What's the deal with not being able to post attachment pics??


* I thought they fixed it, but I guess not. you do not have 10 posts in order to post your pics.:smiley-shocked029::smiley-shocked029:*


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## 524SWE (Jan 20, 2017)

I forgot to tell you I'm pretty sure your auger gear box uses gear oil so it wouldn't take much if the snowblower hadn't been used in awhile for the seals to harden up and the first time you use it they develop a leak. Not sure how hammering on the auger drive pulley would mess up the seal but things happen in cold weather.


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## ourkid2000 (Feb 27, 2017)

Boy howdy neighbors! Haha


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## RIT333 (Feb 6, 2014)

ourkid2000 said:


> Boy howdy neighbors! Haha


Can you repeat that 3 times, only louder ! LOL


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## Dauntae (Nov 10, 2016)

RIT333 said:


> Can you repeat that 3 times, only louder ! LOL


And in different threads, 10 in the same thread won't count.


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## BeansBaxter (Feb 17, 2015)

FYI, Imgur pics seem to work fine. After you upload the images, click on "Get share links" and use the BBCode. That shouldn't be dependent on the post count.


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## ourkid2000 (Feb 27, 2017)

See pics below. The white stuff is just baby powder I used to see where leaks were.


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## ourkid2000 (Feb 27, 2017)

Kinda bummed about this.....not sure what the deal is with these oil seals and how they could have gone bad so easy. It's not like the blower is old (2012) or anything. When I inspected them, they looked perfect and I could see no flaws. They're expensive as well as I think two new ones are costing me something like 30 bucks (Cdn). The best is the auger gasket costing me 27 dollars! Ouch, robbery!

I've got 3 new oil seals and a auger gasket coming to do the final repairs. If anyone is wondering, when I disassembled everything last week, I just put o-ring lube on the oil seals (supposed to swell them) and I made my own auger gasket using bulk Felpro stuff and put everything back together. I had filled the gearbox with gear oil and let it sit for like 6-7 hrs to make sure it didn't leak before I installed it. Well it took 24 hours before it started leaking from that LH oil seal again and at that point I had installed the auger back in the blower. Yeah, I was bummed.


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## UNDERTAKER (Dec 30, 2013)

ourkid2000 said:


> See pics below. The white stuff is just baby powder I used to see where leaks were.


*Seals can go at any given time, Day, Month or Year. so just put the new seals and gasket on there. and fill it up with 80/90 non syn gear oil. the seals will not hold the syn stuff. as I have said before it has been told by the Powers greater than me. you also can use white lithium grease in there. but I will stick with the old school way and just you gear oil.:yahoo::yahoo::yahoo::yahoo::yahoo::yahoo:*


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## UNDERTAKER (Dec 30, 2013)

ourkid2000 said:


> Kinda bummed about this.....not sure what the deal is with these oil seals and how they could have gone bad so easy. It's not like the blower is old (2012) or anything. When I inspected them, they looked perfect and I could see no flaws. They're expensive as well as I think two new ones are costing me something like 30 bucks (Cdn). The best is the auger gasket costing me 27 dollars! Ouch, robbery!
> 
> I've got 3 new oil seals and a auger gasket coming to do the final repairs. If anyone is wondering, when I disassembled everything last week, I just put o-ring lube on the oil seals (supposed to swell them) and I made my own auger gasket using bulk Felpro stuff and put everything back together. I had filled the gearbox with gear oil and let it sit for like 6-7 hrs to make sure it didn't leak before I installed it. Well it took 24 hours before it started leaking from that LH oil seal again and at that point I had installed the auger back in the blower. Yeah, I was bummed.


 Did you polish up the shafts nice and smooth and shiny????? because if you did not. you could of ripped it going back on there GRASSHOPPER.


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## ourkid2000 (Feb 27, 2017)

Polished? No.....But I used coarse Scotch brite, fine Scotch brite, and finally 600 grit sandpaper. It wasn't shiny, but it was silky smooth.


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## 524SWE (Jan 20, 2017)

try these guys, don't what they'll be CDN:

Mower Part Pros Grand Rapids, OH (419) 980-0412

Here's their quotes in US:

108-7330 GASKET-GEARCASE, AUGER $14.85
7-0045 SEAL-OIL $9.12

might not be any better, I don't know.


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## cranman (Jan 23, 2016)

I've been using 00 grease instead of gear oil lately


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## ourkid2000 (Feb 27, 2017)

I used this stuff. I had a quick look online and 00 Grease seems to be un-obtainium around here......weird.


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## ourkid2000 (Feb 27, 2017)

One little thing I did notice during my inspection of the auger box. The lips of the oil seals on both the LH and RH side were installed away from the lubrication. So, the lips taper out towards the augers.

I have the Toro service manual for this thing and it explicitly states that these lips are supposed to face in towards the lubrication. Seems odd....but I just re-installed them the way they came out. It certainly didn't appear that anyone had ever been into the gearbox before so it was likely installed this way from Toro.


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## DriverRider (Nov 20, 2016)

An old saying goes "remove a seal, replace a seal" and is true 99% of the time.


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## UNDERTAKER (Dec 30, 2013)

ourkid2000 said:


> One little thing I did notice during my inspection of the auger box. The lips of the oil seals on both the LH and RH side were installed away from the lubrication. So, the lips taper out towards the augers.
> 
> I have the Toro service manual for this thing and it explicitly states that these lips are supposed to face in towards the lubrication. Seems odd....but I just re-installed them the way they came out. It certainly didn't appear that anyone had ever been into the gearbox before so it was likely installed this way from Toro.


*Post some pics of this problem that is presenting itself unto us here. did you put them in right?????????*


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## ourkid2000 (Feb 27, 2017)

Well, being installed on the blower it will be very difficult to get a picture of this. 

When my parts arrive and I year it all apart, I will get pics then. I may be misunderstanding the configuration honestly. Have to do some digging.


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## 524SWE (Jan 20, 2017)

as a general rule seals are installed like this:


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## UNDERTAKER (Dec 30, 2013)

ourkid2000 said:


> Well, being installed on the blower it will be very difficult to get a picture of this.
> 
> When my parts arrive and I year it all apart, I will get pics then. I may be misunderstanding the configuration honestly. Have to do some digging.


 Were there any knicks or shavings of any kind on the gearbox itself?????????


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## ourkid2000 (Feb 27, 2017)

I didn't see any problems there.


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## UNDERTAKER (Dec 30, 2013)

ourkid2000 said:


> I didn't see any problems there.


* Just making sure that's all. trying to cover all the bases.*


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