# Troybilt Storm 2840



## rjwswim (Nov 3, 2013)

Hello,
Looking to get my 2840 ready for winter and seeing a few potential issues. Hoping someone can point me in the right direction. Machine is 2 years old, minimal use, minimal maintenance. It appears to use a powermore 277cc engine.

1) Surges at idle - I ran the remainder of the tank out (gas used was treated with stabil). I plan on using perhaps 2oz seafoam/gallon and run a small amount of gas through shortly to address. Any other thoughts on the surging?
2) Silver box on the auger shaft (gearcase?) has leaked a fair amount of oil (maybe 2 half dollar sized circle). Any concerns with this? There appears to be a plastic fill plug on the top of this box, should I attempt to top this off? If so what lubricant should I use?
3) Owners manual indicates annual lubrication of the auger shaft using spray lubricant. Any thoughts on a specific lubricant that would be most appropriate?

I have lubricated the hex drive rod and I plan on changing the oil. Anything else I should plan on doing? Little mechanical experience but I dont mind putting some time into it. I have the operators manual, does anyone know if there are more detailed service manuals available? 

Thanks,
RJ


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## Blue Hill (Mar 31, 2013)

Welcome to the forum rjwswim! 
I'm no expert and there's lots of folks on here that are smarter than me, but 2 years old and minimal use says bad gas to me. I think the Seafoam idea is a real good place to start. If you have to get more serious, I would start with YouTube. Look for Donnyboy73's channel. There isn't much that you can do to a snowblower that he hasn't made a step by step video about.
Two years old and minimal use with a leaking gearbox would certainly have me concerned. Two half dollar size spots doesn't add up to a lot of oil, but a leak doesn't usually fix itself, or start leaking less.  It probably hasn't leaked enough yet to top it up, but you should check it. Your owners manual should tell you what the level should be and how to check it. Troybilt appears to have a decent customer support system Lawn Care Products: Lawn Care Equipment from Troy-Bilt®
You can look here at faq's and download service manuals etc. You can also ask specific questions. I've done this on the Ariens site and had a good experience with any questions that I've asked.
Finally, it's pretty important to get lubricant between the auger shaft ant the auger tube to avoid rust in this area. If the tube seizes to the shaft, your shear bolts won't do what they are supposed to do when you get a shock load and the force can take out your gearbox. Look for grease nipples on the auger tube so that you can squirt a few shots of grease in there. Any good quality grease, like you would use to grease your car will do.
Hope this helps
Larry


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## Shryp (Jan 1, 2011)

I don't think Troy-Bilt/MTD uses grease zerks on the augers. On the bright side, their augers are so flimsy and loose that they don't really need them. Also the new ones uses like 2 or 3 separate augers on each side with plastic bushings between them instead of one large sturdy auger so even less likely to rust up.

A leaky gear box doesn't sound good. You could get some 00 grease and use that instead of oil. It is thicker than actual gear oil, but thinner than grease.


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## rjwswim (Nov 3, 2013)

Thanks guys. I will review troybilt support in more detail but so far it I don't see anything that specifically address more details than the operator manual. The only place I see to submit specific questions is via the phone. I will move forward with running some seafoam through, hopefully that will clear the biggest issue up. Shryp, correct on the auger shaft. Plastic bushings with separate augers. I will apply some kind of spray lubricant. I will take a closer look at the gearbox and keep an eye out for further leakage. 

Thanks!


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## coastie56 (Feb 4, 2016)

Pull the print for the carb and find the idle air plug/jet on top of the carb. the orifice in it is so small the only way I found to clean it was to cut a small wire out of a wire brush and epoxy it to the end of a small piece of wood and work it though with the help of carb cleaner. I've had to do it twice now as the sea foam doesn't seem to protect it from plugging. Also you maf be able to spray the carb cleaner into that side of the carb body by disconnecting the tupe to the primer bulb and spraying it through the red tube that comes with the can. I also am going to put an in line filter in the fuel line to prevent the smallest bit of contamination from getting through. Just remove the shrouds as in the numerous videos and cut the line in half and install but make sure and buy the correct spring clips. What would really be cool would be to reroute/re-install the fuel line from being completely covered by the shroud and put in a fuel shut off in a longer hose. On the Storm 2410 carb the air jet is on the top of the carb and just pops out BTW. The main jet is under the bowl in the usual place but it seems to be the idle jet that plugs up.


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## DennisP (Jan 10, 2016)

Even though this is a really old thread, I figured since it was resurrected I would add a thing or two...

I noticed while redoing the auger setup on my Cub Cadet 524SWE that MTDs "00" grease used on their auger gearboxes tends to seperate out, thus the oil can leak out if it is filled too much (personally I put the gear box on it's side and when I pulled the augers to use Super-Lube to grease everything I noticed the seperated oil was leaking out of the gearbox). I really don't know the useable lifespan of the Alvania Epr00 grease they use, but I will say that I think that if it does seperate and the oil leaks to just below the seals on the auger shaft than you are still 'OK'. I am sure enough tends to gets spread throughout the gearbox by the bottom of the brass gear being submerged and in operation it gets flung around in there by the higher-rate spinning worm gear that it interfaces with.

Personally I bought some Castrol SHL "00" Synthetic grease for when I reassemble the gearbox on the 1999 Craftsman. I have heard it doesn't seperate, ever. That would allow it to offer the best protection overall. I will probably go as far as to rebuilding the 524SWE gearbox after next winter and since I bought a full tube of the Castrol SHL "00" grease I have plenty. I figure on a rebuild with all the old-stuff cleared out it is a simple matter of filling one whole half of the gearcase with lube and then just sealing it up. Personally, unless it is leaking I can't see adding grease on a yearly basis. Eventually you will have excess greae coming out the vent at the top and then with temp changes you will end up causing grease out of a seal or two.

I might add, in regards to carbs, that in a lot of carbs the air-vent is inside the carb by the choke, but on certain carbs (like the 2-cycle Tecumsehs for example) there is one vent external for the primer circuit and another vent external for the fuel venturi.


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