# Powerland Auger gearbox troubles



## Spoke (Nov 23, 2012)

So I have a 2 year old 32" Powerland snow blower. It's an extremely cheaply made snow blower but when it's working It does a good job clearing the driveway. Don't get me wrong, I would never recommend buying one of these but I'm stuck with it at the moment.

Anyway, my problem is with the auger gearbox. I've blown two of them in two years. The last one blew out in less than 3 uses. I have not read any other posts about others having this same problem so I'm wondering if there is something out of alignment or jammed up on my machine that is causing it to eat up gearboxes. Or is it normal to go through a gear box every year?

What should I be looking at for alignment issues?

Could I replace it with a gearbox from another brand?

I saw a post about replacing plastic bushings with bearings could this help?


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## Shryp (Jan 1, 2011)

Do you have a gravel driveway?

Are your skid shoes adjusted so low that the augers occasionally hit the concrete?

Do you run into curbs?

Does your driveway have large bumps that can be hitting the augers?

Are you using proper shear bolts and not regular hardware store bolts?

Are you putting the proper oil / grease in the gearbox when you replace or repair it?

Can you think of anything else you are hitting that you shouldn't be?

Do you have a lot of ice?

Is your EoD snow very heavy and wet?


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## td5771 (Feb 21, 2011)

take out the shear pins and make sure the augers are not rusted to the shafts.

on that note... one mistake i have seen people make is when they put in the shear pins they crank them down and wind up locking the rakes and shaft together and then the shear pins wont function they way they should. you should put the pins in, nuts on, and tighten so they still spin in the hole they shouldnt be tight.


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## Spoke (Nov 23, 2012)

Shryp said:


> Do you have a gravel driveway?
> 
> Are your skid shoes adjusted so low that the augers occasionally hit the concrete?
> 
> ...


There is some gravel around the center edge of the driveway that I hit by accident sometimes. 

I will check the skids.

No curbs

Drive way is pretty smooth.

shear bolts are stock and the augers spin freely when they are removed.

Powerland sent me a completely assembled gearbox when it went the first time. I have not replaced it yet since the last breakdown.

Not a lot of Ice but lots of wet snow.


My initial thought is that since the shear pins don't shear then there must be some drag in the system that doesn't shear the pins but puts enough stress on the gear to strip it. 
I have the skids adjusted down as low as they can be to clear the driveway down to the black top. it sound's like that may be part of the issue. The gravel is probably another. I'll have to mark the edge of the driveway better so I can avoid hitting it. 

Thanks for the pointers. I'll let you know how I do.


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## Shryp (Jan 1, 2011)

I am not saying for sure it is you and not just cheap parts. I have had my blower go slightly off the edge of the driveway and have the augers bounce off the concrete when it dips down though.

I have seen some videos online where people hit things and it pulls the auger shafts out of the front bearings and cracks the auger case. Is your case braking or just the gears stripping?

Gravel is bad for it, but 1 or 2 pieces once in a while shouldn't destroy it.

Sometimes the scraper bars are adjustable too. Maybe you can raise the skids a bit to pick the augers up and lower the rear scraper bar and still get the same affect.

Heavy snow could put enough strain on it to strip the gears without giving the quick snap required to shear the shear bolts.

The other thing to keep in mind is if the snow is heavy and deep is to go as slow as possible and let the machine do the work. Trying to force it to go faster than it is comfortable doing will cause a lot of extra stress as well. If you are spilling snow out of the sides, bouncing around a lot or riding up on the snow and not cutting all the way down those are signs you are going to fast.


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## Spoke (Nov 23, 2012)

*Parts is parts*

So I took the gear box off the blower and found a bent shear pin. After cutting it out I noticed that they were made of steel. is that normal? Also unlike other shear pins I've seen they do not have notches in them to help with the shearing process. These are the stock shear pins. I think I'm going to try and find some after market ones that will fit when I get this thing fixed up.

My new problem is that I can't find parts for this thing anywhere, and the phone number from powerlands site keeps going to voice mail. 

Does anyone know where I can find parts for one of these?

I noticed that the parts look to be the same a an MTD snowblower except I need a 32 inch width and can only find a 30 inch in MTD.


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## HCBPH (Mar 8, 2011)

*Gearbox*

Spoke

First off welcome. I'm a little confused on when you say you're blowing the auger gearbox. Are you breaking the case, stripping the gears or what?

If it's like most gearboxes, there's a worm gear on the impeller shaft, a bronze gear on the auger shaft. There's a couple of bushings in there too.
Not alot can go wrong in there if the worm gear is aligned properly in relation to the bronze gear, they keep the impeller shaft from sliding forward and back. Unless the bushings are worn, you shouldn't have much of that.
In fact, here's a thread I put together that included replacing some bushings inside a auger gearcase that were worn:
Auger Housing Repair/Rebuild
There are only a couple of basic gearboxes I've seen so most have interchangable parts within them for the respective models.

The fact you said you had a bent shear bolt leads me to believe either you ingested something you shouldn't or the auger is catching on something on or in the auger housing. The question is whether the auger shaft the rakes mount on, whether they go full width of the housing or not. If the shaft is full width and supported on the end by a bushing or bearing, that's not too likely. If it only goes part way down the rake and there's a bearing or bushing with a sleeve in it that fits into the end of the rake, then it's more of a possibility. Have you ever had a rake jump off that bushing (if it's that design)?

As far as shear bolts/pins go, yes they are some form of metal. Some have a pair of grooves in them to align with the outer sleeve of the rakes so when something is hit, that breaks. Others are just a softer metal that shears easily. I'm not too particular which I've used other than if they are grooved that they line up correctly. As noted you don't want to over tighten them so it distorts the auger rakes onto the shaft. When the bolts are in, if you try to manually move the rake there should be a small amount of play in there, that shows everything is free like it should. I also like to either grease well or use antiseize on the shaft to help prevent the rakes from rusting to the shaft. Some use 1/4" shear bolts while others use 5/16", use the right size for your machine.

One other thing I have seen, the impeller shaft moved forward to back enough that the rivots on the back of the impeller was hitting the ends of the auger housing to tractor unit mounting bolts. I've shimmed the shaft between the impeller and impeller bearing before to prevent that from happening. Shouldn't be too likely if you've bent shear bolts though.

If you can, post some pictures as it can help at times seeing the problem parts.


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## skibum45 (Feb 16, 2017)

hello Guys, I also have a Powerland PDST 32 and you are correct, you cant find parts and they no longer make this snowblower - thank you Home Depot for selling me this.

is there a substitute gear worm you can use for this machine? any help is appreciated.


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## JayzAuto1 (Jul 25, 2016)

Well, I can't speak for your machine, The 32" model, but I picked up a 24" machine (I THINK), and it has a lot in common with the MTD. It shares the same gear box, including the brass gear. It may (or may NOT) be worth pulling it apart to try and match something up. OR, take that destruction as a bad omen, lesson learned and upgrade. On the unit I had, I pulled it into the shop at night, and stand it up in the service position, as I do all the blowers trying to get in as many as possible. The next morning, It was laying on it's side....The Tin Foil Tub Side, collapsed under it's own weight. I think I was able to salvage 1 skid shoe. Not bad for the $20 I paid for the machine...I Guess 

GLuck, Jay,


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## JayzAuto1 (Jul 25, 2016)

Spoke, I just found a manual that I had D/L wen I got my P/L 24" machine that has a parts breakdown. But oddly enough, no part numbers.....Now That's Quality!!!!! I just looked at the carcass I have. Gearbox looks like MTD. Where are you Located?? 

Thanx, Jay


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