# rectangular exit at chute is 3"x 4", clogs, going to make 6" round



## JLawrence08648 (Jan 15, 2017)

I have 3 Murrays (2 Nomas, 1 Craftsman). I don't know why Murray did this, the exit from the impeller at the top of the housing is a rectangular box protecting upwards that the chute is fastened to. The rectangular box measures 3" x 4 1/4" & 5" high.

They have a high front pulling a lot of snow in, then rather than the more common 9" impeller you'd find on MTD machines, they all have a 12" impeller which means they are sucking in a lot of snow then the impeller is pushing out a lot of snow only to be restricted by a reduced opening of 3" x 4". Then it's not as if the snow goes through an opening and out again, it has to travel up this small reduced box 5 or 6 inches before it can exit at the chute. This isn't bad if the snow is dry but it stills slows me down, I have to use a slower gear, and takes me longer! Then if the snow has any moisture, even slower, and the snow comes out in rectangular bricks.

Has anyone had or have a snowblower where this exit is reduced like the Murrays?

I like these machines, especially easy to change belts, just minutes, so easy. However I'm divided, do I sell these and use the money to buy a snowblower with a round exit? I'm not snowblower poor, I do have others, Ariens ST522 5hp 22", and an 8hp Dynamark which has a round exit. Those are for sale but.......

Or do I grind the welds on the rectangular box off, remove the box, then I'd either make and weld a larger square box, or find a local fabrication shop to make me a round cylinder to weld to the housing at the impeller. I was also thinking of finding a small not busy welding shop to do the job, seeing what they want to do the job on the three snowblowers. The two larger, 9/27" Noma and the 10/29" Craftsman, I bought used as all my machines, have very little use so I know what I have. Everything starts, runs great, carbs cleaned, serviced, new belts, tires are all good of course, paint is in good shape, no rust.


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## Town (Jan 31, 2015)

My 2015 Ariens Platinum 30 SHO has an impeller opening that is 4.25" wide (impeller width opening dimension) and 4.5" deep (impeller travel dimension). I am not sure where you are getting the height of the impeller housing from so I did not measure that. The chute is 6" in diameter and 20" tall with an extra 7" for the deflector on top of chute. The impeller is 14" in diameter and there is a gap from impeller to impeller housing of about 5/16". The engine is the 414 cc LCT with 20 ft lbs of torque and about 12.5 hp. The impeller runs at 1100 rpm and it never blocks the chute regardless of how wet or heavy the snow/slush is. Here is a pic of the impeller opening.










Sounds like your proposed increase in impeller opening dimensions will be what Ariens has done. You cannot do better than copy the Ariens design in my opinion.

Good luck.


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## detdrbuzzard (Jan 20, 2012)

I had a 5.5/24 craftsman / murray like that, once I noticed the rectangle opening I picked up a toro 521 and the craftsman was sold


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## nwcove (Mar 2, 2015)

my underpowered snotek has that same type "box" on it without issue in any snow conditions. i did do the impeller mod before i used the machine , so i dont know if the "box" would have caused issues.


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## 1132le (Feb 23, 2017)

my brother has a 10/29 craftsman 358cc running 3600 rpm i put and impeller kit on it
Has the same kind of chute as jl it threw snow for chit prior to impeller kit
now its just about ok but max throw is 25 or so


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## sock-feet (Dec 14, 2017)

I have a Craftsman with the rec exit and it sucked until I put the Impeller rubber mods. It never clogs unless is stalls out on super slushy stuff.


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## YSHSfan (Jun 25, 2014)

Honda HS (not HSS) snowblowers have a rectangular exit about 3"x5" and their performance is amazing, bear in mind that their impellers turn fast.










The newer yamaha YS1028J has a 'D' shape of ~5"x3" and again their performance is amazing.










Bottom line, IMMHO the impeller exit does not need to be completely open to have an excellent performance.

Maybe all you need is an impeller seal kit and perhaps a bit of impeller rpm increase.

:blowerhug::snow48:


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## JLawrence08648 (Jan 15, 2017)

YSHSfan said:


> Honda HS (not HSS) snowblowers have a rectangular exit about 3"x5" and their performance is amazing, bear in mind that their impellers turn fast.
> 
> The newer yamaha YS1028J has a 'D' shape of ~5"x3" and again their performance is amazing.
> 
> ...


Not being sarcastic, this was definitely enlightening.

Honda's are rare in my area. I have to go at least 20 miles to a Honda dealer, another State, further to another county here, so I've never seen one in person.

I don't disagree that an impeller kit will improve performance, but I can't help feel that a wider opening will increase performance and result in less clogging.


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## RAYAR (Mar 7, 2015)

If you want to throw snow to the right, that low round chute opening is fine, but if you want better throwing performance in any direction the chute is aimed, that extended rectangular opening will perform much better. I modified my 1975 blower years ago with an approximately 3-1/2" X 5" X 8" high rectangular impeller opening and it improved throwing performance in any direction of about 270 degree rotation that I modified that chute to be aimed at. That blower is a 10-26 with a 3 paddle 12" impeller that I haven't installed an impeller kit on. I also have a few other blowers with the round opening that I'm thinking of modifying to an extended rectangular opening for the improved performance and the extra degrees of rotation I can get in aiming the chute.


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## sock-feet (Dec 14, 2017)

I have both the Rec opening Craftsman and the Round wide open Craftsman. The rec definitely can concentrate the snow in any direction. The full open round just hurls alot fast and all over. Here is a video of the 14" impeller with rubber mod 13 hp HF engine blowing alot of snow fast and all over the place. Each has its own purpose.


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## JLawrence08648 (Jan 15, 2017)

sock-feet said:


> I have both the Rec opening Craftsman and the Round wide open Craftsman. The rec definitely can concentrate the snow in any direction. The full open round just hurls alot fast and all over. Here is a video of the 14" impeller with rubber mod 13 hp HF engine blowing alot of snow fast and all over the place. Each has its own purpose.
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvmBx8XCG2c


Sick-feet - Is video you blowing snow? 

Do both of your machines have the impeller kit?

What is the Hp/Width of each of your machines?

Do you have more of a problem with wet snow with the rectangular opening than you do with the round opening?


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## detdrbuzzard (Jan 20, 2012)

looking at the vid i'm not sure if that might be caused by the chute and deflector, it had no taper to it. when I had the short chute on my 521 the deflector was wide and snow came out looking more like the snow in the vid. after installing the tall chute which had a taper to it the snow stream is more comcentrated


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## sock-feet (Dec 14, 2017)

JLawrence08648 said:


> Sick-feet - Is video you blowing snow?
> 
> Do both of your machines have the impeller kit?
> 
> ...


The Video is me blowing snow with a 1982 Craftsman Drift breaker with the Impeller rubber upgrade 32" wide 3 stage 14" impeller 13 HP Harbor freight engine. The exit is round and wide open with a short chute as wide as the round hole. This is great blowing machine but you can see it blows it in a wide and tall spray. 

The other is a 1995 Craftsman 8hp 27" wide with the impeller rubber upgrade 2 stage and has a small rectangle output. This blows great even with wet and slushy snow. The only time I have ever had a problem is when I tried to plow through the slush to fast and bogged the engine down. It would then clog. The key is the rubber upgrade and going slow through the wet stuff. The spray is more concentrated and more directional.


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## JLawrence08648 (Jan 15, 2017)

sock-feet said:


> The Video is me blowing snow with a 1982 Craftsman Drift breaker with the Impeller rubber upgrade 32" wide 3 stage 14" impeller 13 HP Harbor freight engine. The exit is round and wide open with a short chute as wide as the round hole. This is great blowing machine but you can see it blows it in a wide and tall spray.
> 
> The other is a 1995 Craftsman 8hp 27" wide with the impeller rubber upgrade 2 stage and has a small rectangle output. This blows great even with wet and slushy snow. The only time I have ever had a problem is when I tried to plow through the slush to fast and bogged the engine down. It would then clog. The key is the rubber upgrade and going slow through the wet stuff. The spray is more concentrated and more directional.


Sock-Feet - Would you suggest and recommend I change my rectangular exit from the impeller to a 5"-6" round opening? In addition to installing the impeller kit.

Installing the impeller kit is easy when you have a round opening. How did you do it with the 3" x 4" rectangular opening? What suggestions or ideas do you have encountering this "obstacle"?


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## RIT333 (Feb 6, 2014)

JLawrence08648 said:


> Installing the impeller kit is easy when you have a round opening. How did you do it with the 3" x 4" rectangular opening? What suggestions or ideas do you have encountering this "obstacle"?


Why not pull the auger/impeller assembly, and do it while out of the snowblower ?


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## guybb3 (Jan 31, 2014)

^This


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## 1132le (Feb 23, 2017)

i have installed many kits
this isnt building a rocket no need to remove anything but the chute 
jl just trim the paddle to fit if the straight part is covered you are golden trim the rest for a close fit
use a washer and a big tek screw 2 on each paddle use a bit extension
brake in each paddle for 1 min then do the next one
when all 3 or 4 are done let it run 4 or 5 min done
blah blah about balance breaking in one at a time before anyone bothers with that
craftsman was easir then ariens took 40 min


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## YSHSfan (Jun 25, 2014)

JLawrence08648 said:


> . How did you do it with the 3" x 4" rectangular opening? What suggestions or ideas do you have encountering this "obstacle"?


Use an extra long drill bit.


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## sock-feet (Dec 14, 2017)

JLawrence08648 said:


> Sock-Feet - Would you suggest and recommend I change my rectangular exit from the impeller to a 5"-6" round opening? In addition to installing the impeller kit.
> 
> Installing the impeller kit is easy when you have a round opening. How did you do it with the 3" x 4" rectangular opening? What suggestions or ideas do you have encountering this "obstacle"?


I would leave the Rectangle exit. I took off the chute to get a strait shot at the Impeller paddle and I used a long drill bit I bought from the hardware store. The challenge is keeping the impeller from moving when you push on the drill. I used self drilling and taping bolts after I got the hole started with a drill bit. The self drilling bolts don't do a good job on thicker steel. I used stainless washers too. The key of the rubber is to cut it on an angle on the edge that scrapes. That way it will move if it is a little tight anywhere on the inner surface of the auger housing. I didn't do this and it was too tight and I had to try to trim it after the fact with a razor knife. You will be blown away on how much better the blower will work. I used the side wall of an old tire. You will need to do all three paddles or at least two paddles if it has 4.


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## sock-feet (Dec 14, 2017)

RIT333 said:


> Why not pull the auger/impeller assembly, and do it while out of the snowblower ?


It is hard to judge how far to put the rubber if the impeller is out of the machine.


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## thefixer (Nov 19, 2017)

On the impeller kits that I install, I slot the rubber. This makes it real easy to adjust when you put the impeller back in and makes them adjustable for wear. I also use thru bolts and a backing strip of steel instead of just washers and self tappers. I tend to over engineer everything. Most of the impeller kits I install are on Hondas so it's real easy to pull the impeller out of the machine and drill it on the bench. I made templates for the HS and the HSS so it goes pretty quick and that way they're all consistent. I don't have to measure everytime, just slap the jig on and drill away.


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## JLawrence08648 (Jan 15, 2017)

thefixer said:


> On the impeller kits that I install, I slot the rubber. This makes it real easy to adjust when you put the impeller back in and makes them adjustable for wear. I also use thru bolts and a backing strip of steel instead of just washers and self tappers. I tend to over engineer everything.


Slotting the rubber sounds like a good idea to account for wear but should there be any wear after the initial install once the rubber wears to the side of the housing it won't wear anymore?

I agree that using a strip of metal is a good idea, may be over engineering but not any more costly and very minimal extra labor. A fair alternative to a strip and better than no strip is using Phillips Truss head screws. Though many use self tapping, I'd be hesitant because of the vibration and banging unless the self tapping or Tek screws were backed up with Lock-Tite, even then I'd rather use elliptical offset torque nuts to be sure. Over engineering using these torque nuts? I don't think so. Just safety and peace of mind.


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## 1132le (Feb 23, 2017)

no need to slot it after it conforms to the drum there is no more wear
my oldest kit is 9 yrs old
installed with tek screws and washers


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## 1132le (Feb 23, 2017)

YSHSfan said:


> Honda HS (not HSS) snowblowers have a rectangular exit about 3"x5" and their performance is amazing, bear in mind that their impellers turn fast.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Impeller rpm nd impeller seal are 95% the most important good call


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## thefixer (Nov 19, 2017)

I am using the torque prevailing nuts you're talking about. They don't loosen up. The slots are mostly for the install. Slide them to the inside of the impeller, then install the impeller. Once the impeller and auger are all back together, I push the flaps out against the impeller housing and tighten the bolts. I wanted to make the whole process repeatable and as easy as possible. I install a lot of these, over 50 this winter so far.


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## sock-feet (Dec 14, 2017)

JLawrence08648 said:


> Slotting the rubber sounds like a good idea to account for wear but should there be any wear after the initial install once the rubber wears to the side of the housing it won't wear anymore?
> 
> I agree that using a step of metal is a good idea, may be over engineering but not any more costly and very minimal extra labor. A fair alternative to a strip and better than no strip is using Phillips Truss head screws. Though many use self tapping, I'd be hesitant because of the vibration and banging unless the self tapping or Tek screws were backed up with Lock-Tite, even then I'd rather use elliptical offset torque nuts to be sure. Over engineering using these torque nuts? I don't think so. Just safety and peace of mind.


I have used the Self tapping self drilling bolts and they never loosen up. You could use a nut to lock them to the impeller paddle. I agree that the rubber doesn't wear out after they are seated to the housing.


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## Cjungman13 (Apr 7, 2018)

I modified JLawrence08648's Craftsman 12" impeller Snowblower today by removing 1 side of the square shaped exit chute and custom fabricating a rounded wall to replace it. After marking and plasma cutting the rectangular shaped exit port to increase flow through, I welded the shaped steel to the impeller housing and modified the chute plate so that it was shaped the same as the outlet port and added 2 holes for 1/4" bolts on each side of the plate to replace those lost by reshaping. I'd have to say it will increase flow by about 40% and I can't wait until next winter to hear back as to how our modification performed.


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## JLawrence08648 (Jan 15, 2017)

Cjungman13 said:


> I modified JLawrence08648's Murray Craftsman II 12" impeller rectangular exit tube today by removing 1 side of the rectangular shaped exit chute and custom fabricating a rounded side to replace it. After marking and plasma cutting one side of the rectangular shaped exit port to increase the flow through, I welded the shaped steel to the impeller housing and modified the chute plate so that it was shaped the same as the outlet port and added 2 holes for 1/4" bolts on each side of the plate to replace those lost by reshaping. I'd have to say it will increase flow by about 40% and I can't wait until next winter to hear back as to how our modification performed.


I will be posting pics. I've seen the machine after it was done but I haven't picked it up yet. I'm waiting for a friend with his pickup truck to be free.

It definitely increased the area between the impeller and the chute, but not 40%, about 20%, it would have been 40% had he done both sides but the chute gear on the other side was a problem. The exit chute tube coming from the impeller housing was 3" x 4" and now is the same 3" x 4" but with one long side missing but replaced with a part of a circle making it wider. I expect the snow to exit more freely reducing the icy bricks that come out or clog. Next is the impeller kit!


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## JLawrence08648 (Jan 15, 2017)

*Pictures of my modified rectangular exit chute*

Below are the before and after pictures of my rectangular exit chute coming from the impeller.

Besides an impeller kit, this will seem to be a great work around a smaller rectangular chute that is clogging with wet slushy snow or to expel more snow faster, especially if you have a larger impeller, 12", 14", 16", rather than the common 9" impeller, as you are bringing in more snow and have a need to expel it.

If you have a MIG or stick welder, a oxy-acet torch to heat and form the semi circle, and a grinder, this is an easy fix. I brought this to a welder because initially I was going to have him remove the complete rectangular box and replace it with a a circular tube for the impeller chute exit by rolling a piece of stock, which I lack the equipment to roll. But one of his employees who did the job suggested cutting removing the long side and welding part of a circle as the side extending the chute exit area. I thought it was a great idea and much simpler. I can't wait next year for the icy slush to see if this reduces the clogs. And l have all the intention of adding an impeller kit!


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## detdrbuzzard (Jan 20, 2012)

a big improvement over what it was


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