# Converting Ariens 924 series to Electric



## ryanhatfield (Feb 20, 2019)

Hey guys,

So I'm converting my Ariens 924 series snowblower over to electric. 

After needing to replace a spindle housing, I've got pretty much everything figured out except for one part ... I need to adapt a 5/8" motor shaft to a 1" pulley.

Here's a full writeup of what I've been working on:
https://hackaday.io/project/163978-electric-snowblower-conversion

But here's a few pictures:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/9KJvyEuwzpXJvs4q6








https://photos.app.goo.gl/xBmX1kgV814N6w1f8









The second picture shows the 3D printed adapter I made ... so far it works like a champ, but I'm only able to secure the pulley to the adapter .. and not the adapter to the inner shaft. Both keyways fit nice and snug, but the pulley wants to jog a tiny bit forward and backward on that shaft while running, and that makes me nervous.

Does anyone know of a 5/8" ID to 1" OD shaft adapter with dual keyways? Could I use a combination of adapters (like 5/8" to 3/4" to 1")?

Thanks in advance for any help


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## groomerz (Feb 7, 2015)

Looks interesting. Have you tried getting a double pulley with 5/8 bore? An electric motor shop should have pulleys. 

Is that a golf cart motor?

Saw your battery pack you made. I’m assuming LI cells How many ah will it supply? 


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## niteshft (Nov 17, 2018)

Could you drill thru the adapter and use a longer set screw to reach the shaft?


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## KennyW in CT (Feb 24, 2015)

niteshft said:


> Could you drill thru the adapter and use a longer set screw to reach the shaft?





I agree with Niteshft, the small key is in contact with the shaft so just drill and tap a hole to get a setscrew in contact with that small key and you should be good to go. Good luck. Looks like 3D printing is here to stay. I know chainsaw guys looking to get NLA manifolds and parts printed up.


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## CarlB (Jan 2, 2011)

that appears to be less than 1/2 hp electric motor. I don't think you will have much luck moving snow with it.


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## db130 (Feb 16, 2013)

For what it's worth, the Ariens Amp 24 came with a 4 horsepower motor and a 48V 30 amp battery.


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## tabora (Mar 1, 2017)

I believe that's a 1/3HP, 24V DC Leeson electric motor rated at only 1,750 RPM. I would also think it needs to be much larger, maybe something like this: Motenergy ME0909 PMDC Motor, 12-48V, 4 hp cont, 12.8 hp peak https://www.electricmotorsport.com/me0909-pmdc-motor-12-48v-4-hp-cont-12-8-hp-pk.html


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## groomerz (Feb 7, 2015)

Like to hear specs on el motor. 
Amps horsepower and rpm

I’ve seen the mean green electric commercial mowers. Technology is there but $$$ 

http://www.meangreenproducts.com

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## bad69cat (Nov 30, 2015)

That is going to be one heavy mutha!


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## ryanhatfield (Feb 20, 2019)

All good stuff guys, thanks!

I'll try to answer some of these questions, but all specs for the project are on the Hackaday.io website here: 
https://hackaday.io/project/163978-electric-snowblower-conversion

There's links to the motor on that site, but @tabora is right it is (by design) a 24V 1/3HP motor running at 1700k ... ish RPMs. I measured and verified at least the RPM at 24V and it's pretty darn close.

I've upgraded the wiring to the motor to 10AWG silicone, and that's the same wire I have in the battery pack. The wiring should be able to handle 75A easy, and the connectors can handle 90A.
As for the batteries, I once pulled 50A from them for 5 minutes, they were lukewarm to the touch. I've had 40V lithium packs get hot to the touch before, I think I'm OK for power delivery. 
I have a few hundred pounds of hybrid car batteries I got from a salvage yard ... so if I need more power, I'll add more batteries.

I'm overvolting this motor to 48V and might even go higher. Yes this will cause heat, yes it's not designed for it ... not really the point here 
I should get some more power out of it.

Running the motor at 48V I get a nice 3400RPM (well within the range for the small engine I think).
@bad69cat
Yup! going to be super heavy. At least I'll get good traction going up icy hills.
@niteshft
Before I read your suggestion, last night I did just that. The pulley had two setscrews already, one for the key and one for the shaft. I'll get a longer setscrew, but it works for now.
The second setscrew goes through the 3D printed part, and connects the pulley directly to the center shaft that way. I know the threads on the PLA plastic part don't matter much, but I tapped them all the same. Mostly to cleanup the pulley threads. Pretty happy with how it turned out.

Here's a picture of it all back together for now. Not in the picture, but the pulley cover even fits still.










And here's a quick video running the motor. I think I'll get rid of the throttle and just use a big relay ... I don't really need variable speed.
https://hackaday.io/project/163978-electric-snowblower-conversion/log/159646-motor-test


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## Jackmels (Feb 18, 2013)

I'll Stick with Gas.


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## ryanhatfield (Feb 20, 2019)

It Lives!


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## ryanhatfield (Feb 20, 2019)

I'm not sure what happened, but I had another post with replies to questions but after I submitted the post it flashed some screen about post moderation, then auto-redirected so I couldn't read it. Also, I can't find the post anywhere so did it fail?

[EDIT] It's not letting me post anything, so I'll just edit this post quick.
@KennyW and @niteshft
Last night I did almost exactly as you suggested, before reading the comments. I'll get a longer set screw at the store, but the pulley already had 2 set screws so I just drilled and tapped the second set screw all the way down to the center shaft.
@db130
Thanks for the information about the Ariens Amp 24, I'm running a 48V setup with a roughly 30Ah battery.
@tabora
You're correct, it is a 24V motor at 1700RPM but I'm running at 48V and get roughly 3600RMP measured with a laser tach.
@bad69cat
Yup! it'll be heavy ... at least I won't have any trouble getting up icy hills.
@RedOctobyr
I'm on 3D printed part #5. The first 2 were too small and (violently) exploded when trying to force them on the motor shaft. The 4th was short due to my impatience ... I took it off the printer early to check fit. It fit so well I left it for the rest of the testing process ... but when I spun up the motor for the very first time, it wobbled and vibrated right off ... ending up a few feet away. It probably wouldn't kill anyone ... but I wouldn't want to be hit by that thing flying off. The 5th and current part is the full 2.5" long of the pulley, and took quite a bit of force to get on there. I'm hopeful it'll hold for a while.


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## RedOctobyr (Mar 2, 2014)

Cool! Let us know as things develop. I don't see your post with answers, unfortunately. 

I'm a bit concerned about whether the 3D printed shaft adapter will hold up to the torque, but hopefully I'm just being overly-cautious.


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## ryanhatfield (Feb 20, 2019)

This is a duplicate post ... I think my other post was swallowed by the spam filter.
@KennyW and @niteshft
Last night I did almost exactly as you suggested, before reading the comments. I'll get a longer set screw at the store, but the pulley already had 2 set screws so I just drilled and tapped the second set screw all the way down to the center shaft.
@db130
Thanks for the information about the Ariens Amp 24, I'm running a 48V setup with a roughly 30Ah battery.
@tabora
You're correct, it is a 24V motor at 1700RPM but I'm running at 48V and get roughly 3600RMP measured with a laser tach.
@bad69cat
Yup! it'll be heavy ... at least I won't have any trouble getting up icy hills.
@RedOctobyr
I'm on 3D printed part #5. The first 2 were too small and (violently) exploded when trying to force them on the motor shaft. The 4th was short due to my impatience ... I took it off the printer early to check fit. It fit so well I left it for the rest of the testing process ... but when I spun up the motor for the very first time, it wobbled and vibrated right off ... ending up a few feet away. It probably wouldn't kill anyone ... but I wouldn't want to be hit by that thing flying off. The 5th and current part is the full 2.5" long of the pulley, and took quite a bit of force to get on there. I'm hopeful it'll hold for a while.


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## ryanhatfield (Feb 20, 2019)

*It's Running*


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## RedOctobyr (Mar 2, 2014)

Nice! Great video. Looks like EC5 and XT60 connectors? Or maybe XT90? I like the parallel battery packs idea. As long as they're all starting out at the same voltage, that should give you some flexibility on battery capacity. In addition to providing more amps. 

Curious, why did it take a few seconds to shut off, after you flipped the fighter jet switch closed? 

I hope you get some snow soon so you can try it out!


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## paulm12 (May 22, 2015)

way cool. thanks for posting.


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## ryanhatfield (Feb 20, 2019)

RedOctobyr said:


> Looks like EC5 and XT60 connectors? Or maybe XT90?


XT30 for the small connector, and XT90 for the larger connector. If you see any blue connectors, those are just terminal crimps.



RedOctobyr said:


> Curious, why did it take a few seconds to shut off, after you flipped the fighter jet switch closed?


If I had disengaged the accessory pulley, it would have stopped sooner as there's a brake on the pulley but I just turned off the power. When you stop a small-engine, there's more resistance and it would slow down faster, but an electric motor has almost no resistance so it takes a while for the rotating mass of the blades to slow down. That's just from the 2 tubes of grease that went into it when I reassembled it 

If you're still curious, there's much more information on my project site:
https://hackaday.io/project/163978-electric-snowblower-conversion


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## ryanhatfield (Feb 20, 2019)

I needed to finish the driveway, so here's the electric snowblower during normal use.

A few notes, the total run time today was about 30 minutes, and I just stopped because I was being careful with the motor. 
The snow drifts were pretty tough, half way through you can see me busting off a large solid chunk.
I added a blower fan and fan shroud to cool the motor, air hits the back of the motor housing and gets directed around the housing.
(that video is second).

But first, here's some snow throwing:


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