# 1032 auger and gearbox wobbling



## oljm

Hi everyone, I am new to this forum. I recently acquired an old JD 1032 (the original and not the D series). I started working on it this weekend. (Yeah, Winter is just around the corner.) Greased all the zerk fittings, checked the belts, etc. Got it running and noticed that the auger and gearbox is wobbling around the auger housing. It's similar to the video of what this person posted. Sorry, I can't post a link apparently. Search for, Auger gearbox movement in the repairs and maintenance forum. Anyone know what might be the matter with this or has seen this? I would like to fix it if practical, but then again, I also realize that this is probably a 35+ year old machine so probably it's showing it age? The machine is solid otherwise. Solid linkages, No cables, etc. That's what drawn me to this machine in the first place. They sure don't make these today. Any problems if I use the machine in this state during the winter?


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## dbert

Welcome oljm
Sounds like you have a bent shaft someplace. 
Here is the post you were trying to link to
Again, welcome.


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## stromr

once you post a few times(I think it's 10) you can do all sorts of things on this forum


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## jtclays

I had a 826 JD and suspect your 1032 has a bad impeller bushing. JD calls them fans or blower in their parts lists here

John Deere - Parts Catalog

I doubt any shaft is bent, they're all 1" in the assembly. You could also have worn bushings at the auger ends combined with the impeller one. They use the same triangle bracket to support the bushings at the bucket sides and the impeller shaft. If left without attention and service the bushings can grind away and let the shaft wear into the bracket support. It's a pretty easy fix and you don't have to find JD bushings to make it work. A 1" ID flange bushing is pretty common to find. Finding the brackets may be more difficult. Also check closely the impeller (fan) blades for bends. The ends are long and can bend completely backwards giving the appearance of being fine. You really need to get the bucket off and hand turn stuff to inspect. If you remove the belt cover, (key off and engine not running:facepalm_zpsdj194qh) pull up and down on the auger pulley. If it moves around the bushing and or bracket are worn. If you get it all apart put the impeller up on a good flat surface. Sometimes the back plate of the impeller fan assembly (the flat steel circle with the blades welded to it) can get deformed if rocks get behind it or the blades took a hard hit. Also some had counter weights spot welded to the back, one may be missing and should be very easy to spot the missing pieces former space.


Forgot to mention, those blowers have two big bolts to hold on the bucket at the edges of the belt cover, the bottom of the bucket rest slots on a rod inside the tractor body. If the rod lost a weld, or one of the bolts up top is loose (or missing) the bucket will settle to the loose side and the impeller will be out of line and appear to wobble. This condition is usually very quick to see and you notice obvious uneven wear of the skids or scraper bar.


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## skutflut

oljm said:


> . Any problems if I use the machine in this state during the winter?


That video shows a Husqvarna, or similar make. I have one of those machines, (in Craftsman colours) and mine has had the same wobble as the one in the video since it was new. 

Now 9 years old and no problems. I dunno if your JD is similar design. The Husqvarna drive shafts do not extent the full length of the rakes tubes and I think thats most of the problem since the drive shafts are a looseish fit inside the rake tubes, and the actual bearings are supporting the rake tubes, not the drive shafts. Kind of a half baked design, but the world is full of half baked stuff now. 

The newer, higher end machines sometimes have a reinforcing bracket that braces the gear box to the bucket, which looks like a great idea, but I don't know if adding one of those to mine would break the aluminum gearbox, as I would need to add longer bolts and the gearbox does not look all that beefy as it is.


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## oljm

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions so far. I'll look into them and get back. With respect to JTCLAY's thoughts about the impeller and auger bushings, I noticed on the parts catalog that there are actually 3 more of these bushings inside the gear case aside from the ones on the impeller and auger support ends. How likely is it that these go bad since they should be well lubricated inside the big oily gear case? A question on the auger housing from the main body, it's probably not that hard splitting it in two, but how about putting it back together. Is it bad? Is it a 2 person job to align and get it back together? This beast is kind of big, heavy and unwieldy. Please keep the ideas coming.


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## skutflut

oljm said:


> A question on the auger housing from the main body, it's probably not that hard splitting it in two, but how about putting it back together. Is it bad? Is it a 2 person job to align and get it back together? This beast is kind of big, heavy and unwieldy. Please keep the ideas coming.



If yours is similar to the Husqvarna, and it probably is, splitting should be a 2 person effort. One person needs to hold the back of the machine up while the two bolts holding the bucket are removed. As you can guess, the balance of the machine changes dramatically when that second bolt comes out. Same goes for reassembly. You need to keep an eye on the routing of the auger belt when bringing the halves together so that the belt stays on the inside of the brake lever, and doesn't end up on the outside of the lever which will result is a destroyed belt in very short order, and a second opportunity to split the machine to replace a belt.


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## jtclays

If you don't have any leaks, I would guess your bushings inside the gear case itself are fine. The auger shaft is full length to the edges of the bucket. It is heavy to remove. It's not like pulling a Craftsman where you can one hand the impeller and rakes onto the bench. I did all the work on mine alone but a second set of hands would have been nice. For splitting the machine, any saw horse or workmate type setup will work fine for letting the tractor and handles rest. You have to remove the chute rotation handle guide at the handlebars or pull the gear mount at the chute. Once you get them apart you will see it is a very simple machine to work on. This video series is about swapping an engine, but it shows a lot of the assembly (parts 4 and 5 show most of what you need at this time). Member Shryp sent me this link when I first got my 826 and it helped me many times over doing my restoration. If you need pictures of specific parts, let me know I may be able to get them out of my old computer.


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## Kiss4aFrog

:welcome: to SBF oljm

_" This beast is kind of big, heavy and unwieldy."

_Trust me, *I know !!*


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## oljm

Thanks for the info guys. I'll probably tear into my machine this weekend. I watched the rebuild videos on YT. How is the impeller pulley attached to the back of the housing? He mentioned some sort of "special tool", (is it just a 12 point socket?) used to for the fastener(s) though I only saw one square head bolt looking down the side of the pulley in the video. Are there any others? Any close up photos of these areas would be very helpful. It took him quite a while to "extricate" the impeller and auger assembly out of the housing, which is probably expected, is putting it back together also going to be a fight? (He didn't show the process much). I noticed he was wailing on auger/gearbox assembly pretty good with that hammer trying to straighten the auger. Wouldn't that damage something? I am probably getting a bit ahead of myself here. But are there torque specs for the bolts and fasteners on the re-assembly? Do you need to oil the sleeve bushing on the impeller end (i.e. periodic maintenance)? If so, they don't make it possible without splitting the machine obviously. Or are there some magic ports where one can lubricate this piece easily.


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## jtclays

There were two set screws on the inside (hardest to get to side) of the impeller pulley. There's a lock nut and the set screw, which I remember to be square headed. I drilled a shallow dimple in the end of the impeller shaft at the pulley hub to let my air hammer set in with a dulled off blunt tip. Loosened up the set screws and hit the impeller shaft with the air hammer, pulley dropped right off. The key took some work to remove. As I remember it the sides of the bucket had the triangle bushing supports threaded. They were just castings and very easy to strip. They sit inside the bucket and the bolts thread in from the outside. I'll spend a minute or two looking up my old pics. I found a couple before and after, but they are just cosmetic. You can see the flattened out/bent back impeller tips in the second pic.


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## jtclays

We're getting closer, but the other side of the pulleys you don't need right now. I'll keep looking.
Although if you look closely at the drive pulley in the second pick you'll see the square head set screw and locking nut they used. There were 2 set up just as they are pictured, but on the auger bucket pulley hub inside. From looking again, the set bolt may have been a regular hex head, for some reason I remember them being square headed?


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## GoBlowSnow

Should just be 1 square bolt holding the fly wheel to the shaft. By the way, what kind of tool do we use to get that square bolt off? I've been using the reverse end of my smaller ratchet set and extender and a pair of large channel locks/pliers on the machines I've worked on so far, but would be nice to have the right tool for the right job!

Also- I'll be tearing into my 1032 as well to start the rebuild/refurbish of it so if you come up against anything, let me know and we can maybe get it sorted out together. 

Cheers


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## dbert

They make square sockets, but using an extension backwards with visegrips or something as you mentioned would work also.
example


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## GoBlowSnow

Thanks! I like my socket sets (Husky & ********) so I'll probably order me one of those square ones.


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## GoBlowSnow

Wow. I can't even cuss out Sears Craftsman tools, instead of Craftsman I sometimes call them Crap sman but oh well.


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## stromr

GoBlowSnow said:


> Wow. I can't even cuss out Sears Craftsman tools, instead of Craftsman I sometimes call them Crap sman but oh well.


HA! HA! HA! Yes the profanity filter is good on this forum isn't it!?!?


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## GoBlowSnow

Well, it is nice having a clean language forum. So much cussing out in the world now a days. I remember when mothers would wash their kids mouths out with soap when they cussed. Lava soap in my case. I only said the F word once when I was a little boy and that was because someone told me I should say it. Well I said it to my mother (I was only 5 or 6) and that was the last time I ever said it. Blah! :eeek:


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## oljm

Hi folks. Didn't have a chance to get to this last weekend. I was able to dig into the machine today. Here's some of my thoughts before my memory fades.

Splitting wasn't as bad as I thought. The machine actually held itself together after both bolts were taken off, I had to pry it a bit to get it to split apart.

I wiggled the auger pulley on the back of the housing, but was not able to feel any movement.
Taking the pulley off was a chore. I was able to take the square bolt off with a 12 point socket,
I didn't realize that the bigger nut under neath it was to lock the square bolt down, so for future reference, one might have an easier time to loosen this nut first. The pulley would not come off
at this point. The key locked it into place pretty good. I had to take a rubber mallet (which didn't work), then a hammer and whacked on the end of the 1 inch auger shaft and yanked on the pulley as I whacked on the end. It finally loosened up. The key is another pain in the rear. After penetrating oil, there's not much surface area to grab onto to get it out. Tapping with a hammer, flipping the assembly bucket down and finally employing a chisel from the top got it out. Maybe that's why the guy on Youtube flattened out the pulley end of the key. I might grind the end down a bit so the next time, it's easier to tap it out.

The whole auger/impeller assembly came out after fighting with some rusty bolts on the side bushing holders. Also had to pry the ends out of the metal housing, but not too bad. NOTE: The impeller and auger shaft, gearbox, and assembly drops out as 1 piece. Be careful, it's heavy and gravity does it's job quite well on it, so watch your feet.

I didn't notice any play on the impeller end of the bushing/holder (E4348E/AM119482). 
No uneven wear visible either. It looked like a newer model compared to the ones on the auger side ends and has what looked like a rubber seal built into the impeller facing end, which the auger side ones did not have.
The auger end bushing/holder have a tad of play and to my untrained eyes, didn't exhibit uneven wear. I am not sure if the small amount of play can contribute to that much movement that I am seeing though. I put on the impeller bushing/holder assembly on the auger side locations and noticed a smaller amount of play.

I propped up the gearbox and checked the shafts coming out of the gearbox for movement. Again, not very scientific way of doing it and I am not a professional by any means. I didn't feel any play on the 3 shaft ends coming out of the gear box.



Thanks for bearing with me on my tirade. ;-)

So here are my questions. Would the small tad of play of the bushing/holder on the auger ends cause the whole assembly to move up and down when engaged?

According to the drawings, I see 6 bushings total (3 already mentioned, 3 inside the gearbox). Any chance the ones inside the gearbox are damaged even though I don't feel any movement on the ends?

Fleabay sells new AM119482 for about $40 a piece, cheapest I can find. Does anyone know if AM119482 include the bronze bearing (E4348E) about $7 a piece. 

There's still plenty of material on all the bronze bushings I examined today. Little to no wear on the interior surface. No visible uneven wear, though a tad of play on the auger end pieces, etc. So I am hesitant to spend upwards of $120+ on something that may or may not fix the issue.

Any thoughts?

Do I just reassemble it and use it this way? 

Anything else I can check?


I noticed one of the angled end piece of the impellers was bent about 45 degrees from where it needs to be. I have a propane torch. Any one know if that's going to help with heating up and bending it back? The YouTube guy had an oxy/acetylene setup and welder. I don't have all that equipment. And I don't want to do more damage. 

I live in New England, and this machine is showing it's share of enduring our brutal winters. There's plenty of surface rust and pitted paint/metal on the inside/outside of the bucket and auger. It's actually not that bad for it's age. And I am glad to see some evidence that the previous owner actually maintained the machine. 

For now, I am probably going to wire wheel the surface and rattle can it. I am not sure if I want to go full blown restoration mode at the moment, probably get it ready for winter (coming real soon now) and see how it does before I decide what I want to do.

I need to figure out what to do about the wobbling soon because the machine is apart and sitting in pieces all over my garage. I can't leave it like that for long. Please share your insight and thoughts folks.

Happy labor day folks.


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## oljm

By the way, I forgot to mention this.
The square head bolt holding the pulley on. I was able to get a 12 point socket to fit perfectly on it.
I tried the tool end of socket extensions, but it felt like there was too much play and there would have been no way to get it off like I did today due to it being torqued down so much.


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## GoBlowSnow

A small amount of play on the auger end is normal. At least it has been on all the JD Augers I've pulled out of the buckets and apart. I feel your pain regarding the key. Out of the 4 or 5 i've taken apart, only 2 have come out with just some minor hammering on one end to get the other end to stick up a bit so that I could put some vice grips on there and wiggle or hammer the rest of it free. I doubt the bushings inside the gearbox are bad if the ones on the outside were in reasonable shape. 

How does the fly wheel (main auger pully) look? Is it lopsided or does it spin the auger true? That main bushing on the backside of the bucket that the auger shaft goes thru.. how did it look?


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## oljm

The pulley on the back of the split housing spins true to the back of the housing when I hand turned it with the belt off. Before dis-assembly, I tried my best to rock it from side to side (as one of our members previously suggested) to see if there's any play and I felt and saw none.

The bronze bushing and holder that attaches to the pulley side of the impeller looked like a newer replacement and it's rock solid when put on the impeller shaft with no play at all.

I took a closer look at the assembly while the machine was running. Most of the wobble travel in the gearbox is vertical (up and down) and not really side to side. Not sure if this is anything interesting data point wise.

I appreciate all the comments and helpful pictures from everyone so far.


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## oljm

I tried the MAP gas route to heat up and unbend areas of the auger. Didn't work very much, if at all. Oxy-Acetylene probably would have worked better, but I don't have that setup. However a 24 inch wrench (plus another pipe extension) and a lot of moderate back and forth wiggling did the job on most areas. Not perfect, but definitely a lot better than before. For some areas, I had to employ "THOR", (a.k.a my sledge hammer). I know, probably, not the brightest idea, but this thing is so over built, I doubt that it would have hurt it. Just had to be careful not to break the welds off some of the places. The impeller had an area where one of the leading scoop edges was bent, probably caught something very hard. There was less than 1/2 of an inch of surface for my wrench grab on to before hitting a welded on brace on the other side of the impeller. That took a lot of time to fix and the extra leverage the extension on my long wrench helped. By the way, I noticed there's quite a gap between the impeller's leading scoop edges and the interior impeller housing? The gap is much bigger than my MTD. Any issues with slushy buildup and throwing distance in general? I know it's dependent on type of snow, what's the range of throw for the stock impeller? I am thinking of doing an impeller kit mod while I have this thing disassembled. Anyone went down this route and can comment on the performance enhancement? Since the auger bushings look fine, I am probably going to put it back together and just use it this way. The up and down wobbling is a concern, but not sure what I can do about it at this point if I don't find anything obvious. If the beefy 1 inch impeller and auger shafts are bent, which I cannot see visually, I doubt that there's anything I can do to fix that other than replace the entire assembly. Any one have ideas about the wobbling that I can look at while I have everything disassembled?


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## oljm

While I have this machine apart, what maintenance things are suggested or recommended? Here's what I did so far. There are zerk fittings on the auger and I pumped grease in there till I see grease come out of the shear pin hole. By the way, is supposed to be a shear pin or just a metal pin? The JD catalog calls it a pin fastener but it's just a floating pin held on by a cotter pin on the other end, so I am not sure why it's a "fastener". And the way that this assembly (cast iron gear box, 1 inch shafts, etc.) is built, I doubt that it would break even if hit concrete. I checked the oil level inside the gear box and that seems fine. Does the oil in there need to be changed? I opened up the bay panel underneath the machine and there was a zerk fitting behind the friction wheel, the owner's manual said to squeeze a few squirts of grease into the fitting, I did more than that, but have not seen anything ooze out. What is this zerk fitting greasing? I brushed some grease on the drive chains and the friction wheel sliding rods per owners manual. There's a differential or some sort inside this area. Does this need to be serviced or should I leave it alone? The engine runs fine. I suppose that the points are working too. Do these need to be maintained periodically? Other than changing the oil in the engine. What else do I need to do? Thanks for your thoughts.


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## GoBlowSnow

Those are the old fashioned shear pins. I have em in some of my machines. I'd go ahead and change the oil out anyway. That zerk fitting underneath often gets missed. Go ahead and put a few more squeezes of grease in there. It does lube up that assembly. If the differential is working fine, leave it alone, there really is no service you can do for the diff that I know of. I'd go ahead and change out the primer line and fuel line anyway, and just check to make sure all the wires are in good shape. throw a little low temp grease on the chute turning mechanisms.


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## oljm

WRT gearbox oil, owner's manual calls for 5w-20, anything better we can put in there?
What low temp grease do you recommend?
Do I need to grease up the auger and impeller bushings and shafts before I reinstall them back on? I don't know if those bronze bushing are oil soaked or not.


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## GoBlowSnow

I don't think so regarding greasing up the bushings, but I'll let someone else speak to that. As for the 5W-20.. well- That will be fine, but 5W20 might be hard to find these days. A good quality gear oil suitable for the temps will do fine, but read the below and you can decide from there. I've used good quality all temp grease in augers that used oil previously but which leaked and where I didn't feel like taking the auger apart to fix. The grease did just fine and in many cases, quieted the auger down considerably. But that is just me, many may frown upon that technique. 






http://www.snowblowerforum.com/foru...sion/1496-auger-gear-oil-sorry-ask-again.html

Service


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## oljm

It's been a while, but thought I update with a post on how this machine is doing and a few thoughts.

We've had a few good storms over the last week.

A footer of powdery stuff, then 4-5 inches of heavy rain soaked slush (not counting the foot of plow crud at end of driveway).

The wobbling is still there. But no problems at all. I pushed this machine through 3-4 foot end of drive way
previously snow blowed then over night refrozen plow crud. This stuff was like cement and the machine went through it like it was nothing. I think the wobbling might be normal just wear and tear and loosening tolerances on the gearbox, gears and drive of this 30+ year old beast. It will probably continue to work with no problems for a good while (knock on wood) with proper maintenance. 

Throwing distance was alright, but not outstanding. Matched the MTD it replaced.

This machine was much easier to keep at the ground level compared to the MTD, which had a bad habit of front end lifting on top of snow. I am not sure if the heavy machine, heavier front end, or tire chains or a combo of all 3 had a hand, but it's much better on the JD.

Though the impeller clutch is a lever control and not under constant hand control, I found my spare right hand to be very busy, constantly adjusting the chute crank (like MTD) to center the chute straight ahead on tight places so snow doesn't fly everywhere.

The placement of the chute crank on left side as opposed to the right side is very user unfriendly. The low position of the handle is very awkward and I find myself having to stand on the left side of the machine most of the time and crouching down to adjust it. Good thing the machine does not drift too much and I could maintain control with just the left hand, but this seems like a bad design.

I added an impeller kit to it and I believe that obviously helped with the throwing distance. I don't think it would have been acceptable for my situation if I didn't do the impeller mod. 

I used to have to plow by hand with the heavy and slushy stuff or spent alot of time clearing the chute on the MTD (like my neighbors kept doing earlier this week) again and again. Not this time. I didn't have to deal with any clogs at all, I just kept running the thing up and down until everything was done. I even tried my darnedest to clog it (pushing it into pools of liquids, runny slush, etc.) and failed miserably (*grin*). I was impressed with this aspect.

This was my first machine with an impeller mod. I think I will retrofit this on all my other machines from now on (should I have time to get that honda working right.)

The chute design was from the 70's or 80's and had it been taller, and more modern design I bet the throwing distance would improve greatly. Anyone have any recommendations on a donor chute from another machine? I have heard more modern Ariens chute might work.


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## Dauntae

Interesting read, and nice machine, It got me thinking about the up and down wobble though, Perhaps the auger shaft has a small bend in it, With the ends supported on both sides of the bucket a bend would actually lift and lower the gearbox, Not sure how you could check it however without pulling the auger shaft out of the gearbox though.


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