# Housing damage



## KingTito (Jan 24, 2018)

After going back and forth for a while I bought a used HS724. Looked great. Works great. Of course I get more knowledgeable. After the fact. Doing thorough service on it and working on adjustments and notice this damage on the underside of the auger housing. Assume it wasn’t adjusted properly by PO. Thoughts? Repair options? Just adjust it and keep using? Kicking myself for not learning more then buying.


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## Kiss4aFrog (Nov 3, 2013)

I know that feeling. Seems each time I buy something I find something else new to inspect so I don't get burnt the next time. Never sure if the PO knew or was clueless as to what I found after purchasing it.

I'm not familiar with Honda and I'm not sure what I'm looking at in the photos. Is that a bolt holding a crack in the housing together ??


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## YSHSfan (Jun 25, 2014)

Auger housing sides and auger serrations may be damaged as well (can you post a few pics of those areas.....?)

The replacement auger housing is really expensive (upwards of $1000 MSRP).

It sure can be repaired, but it can get a bit involving.
A few years ago I repaired an HS928 housing, came out nice, but I took me a while to do it.


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## KingTito (Jan 24, 2018)

More pics. Any advice is appreciated. I feel like a dummy. Become educated before buying. Not after...


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## JnC (Feb 21, 2014)

Seems like its a clean machine beside a couple of issues. 

Main cause? 
A: No side mounted skid shoes. 

The augers are worn only slightly, may be 10 or 15%, same goes for the side of the auger housing. 

The tears in the bottom are due to either the owner running the machine without the scrapper bar or completely obliterating the first scrapper bar. 

If you plan on keeping the machine then you can use it as it is but install the side mounted skid shoes first so that no more damage to the housing or augers would take place. 

In the summer you can rip the machine open i.e. take the augers out etc and mend the damage. usually you can bend it back into shape, have someone weld the cracks, paint over it and install everything back.


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## KingTito (Jan 24, 2018)

Thanks for the great insight. I had this ephiphany that a close friend is a master welder. So I sent him pics and he said we could get this fixed. I’m going to do side shoes. Advice on getting the auger housing out? Easy? Hard? I will get a shop manual but advice before that is appreciated.


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## orangputeh (Nov 24, 2016)

this is common , actually, with owners that don't know any better and don't keep the scraper bar and skid shoes properly adjusted.

the best you can do is readjust the skid shoes ( looks like scraper bar is already out there ) so that they do all the scraping instead the sides and bottom and install side skids like already mentioned.

then if you want to you can wait til spring and take bucket off and cut out the damaged parts and weld in some new metal. it's quite a job as YSHSfan shows in his pictures.

otherwise you can leave as is and keep skids and scraper properly adjusted. maybe you can pick up a cheap donor parts machine in the spring or summer that has a good bucket for 50-100 bucks. 

they are out there. I picked up a hs928 for 100 bucks with a tired motor but the bucket and everything else was in pretty good shape.


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## JnC (Feb 21, 2014)

The housing comes off easy. 

- Remove the two bolts for the auger transmission support bracket, then four on the top to remove the bracket from the auger housing all together.
- Remove the m8 bolt that goes through the impeller and input shaft of the auger transmission. 
- Remove 3 M6 and one M8 bolt from either side of the auger housing, these four support each auger on each side of the housing. 
- If nothing is frozen then the augers should slide right out along with the auger transmission. 
- remove the M6 long shear bolt that holds the impeller in place, this one sits way back in the auger housing. 
- Remove the impeller. 

- At the chute deflector, loosen the control cable, remove the cable. 
- Remove the three chute collars at the base by removing the M8 bolts, be careful as there are usually very thin shims sitting under the collars. 
- Remove the chute and the plastic chute collar. 

- Remove the four m6 bolts to be able to remove the belt cover, the bolts also have 4 spacer/collars, keep track of them as well. 

At this point you should have access to the belts. 

- Loosen the bolts that are for the belt retainers on the crankcase cover, two on either side of the engine, this will help you take the auger belt off of the pulleys. 

- Right where the auger housing meets the chassis there are three M8 bolts on either side of the chassis, two below and two on the top, so 10 in total. Remove all of these, work the auger belt off of the pulley and now you have the housing apart from the chassis/motor. 

The pulley should slide right out along with the belt. 

You can remove the two belt retainers as well by undoing the two M6 bolts for each. 

Do not forget to bag and tag all of the above as it helps when putting things back together.


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## KingTito (Jan 24, 2018)

Amazing detail. Thanks. I’m going to get going on this today. Hopefully get the housing out quickly. Bag and tag. My friend is open tomorrow. So hopefully fix it. Drill holes for side shoes. Any particular one advised? There isn’t a HS724 specific one on the armor shoes site.


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## AriensPro1128 (Nov 9, 2014)

orangeputeh. all of the hondas in the northeast are gold plated. i don't think there are any parts machines for $50-$100. ten times that is more realistic.


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## orangputeh (Nov 24, 2016)

AriensPro1128 said:


> orangeputeh. all of the hondas in the northeast are gold plated. i don't think there are any parts machines for $50-$100. ten times that is more realistic.


I have mentioned this before. Can not believe the number of people in my area that don't take care of their machines. leave them outside year round and just don't care about proper maintenance.

i can understand if they are gold plated. a parts machine for 500-1000? no way jose.


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## RedOctobyr (Mar 2, 2014)

Ugh, I know what you mean. 

My current machine is "just" an Ariens, but the previous owner must have stored it outside, uncovered. Lots of rust, and I had to deal with a bunch of rusted fasteners that broke off when starting to work on it. 

By contrast, my in-laws have the exact same machine, just ~15 years old vs my 17. Theirs has been garaged, and looks practically brand new. 

It sucks when something fairly easy, like covering equipment, or monitoring wear items to avoid damaging expensive auger housings, isn't done. Nice equipment suffers for no reason.


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## arienskids (Jan 26, 2018)

i say just weld it and keep on going. the damage isnt bad at all imo


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## classiccat (Mar 1, 2014)

Total loss! Junk! I'll be a good friend and take it off of your hands so you don't have to look at the mess any longer. mkay? :devil:

In all seriousness, don't beat yourself up; the seller did a good job obscuring the damage from you with that shiny new scraper. He/she knew it was there and didn't disclose it.


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## JnC (Feb 21, 2014)

KingTito said:


> Amazing detail. Thanks. I’m going to get going on this today. Hopefully get the housing out quickly. Bag and tag. My friend is open tomorrow. So hopefully fix it. Drill holes for side shoes. Any particular one advised? There isn’t a HS724 specific one on the armor shoes site.



Being that you have to drill holes you can pick just about any set of skids to use. The armorskid ones are too big for a smaller sized HS724 housing. 

The fallline non abrasive ones are a good choice.


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## KingTito (Jan 24, 2018)

Thanks for the ridiculously awesome instructions. 45 mins to tear down. Fantastic instructions. Better pics of the damage. What the ****...


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## KingTito (Jan 24, 2018)

Sorry. Forgot the pics.


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## JnC (Feb 21, 2014)

Honestly it seems like its not as bad as you might think, the bottom is just rotted and a bit torn. Cut off the rotted 1/2" or so and then weld a clean piece, drill out the openings for the scrapper bar bolts, paint it and call it a day


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## KingTito (Jan 24, 2018)

Yep. I’ve recruited my welding fiend of a friend... case of beer. Thanks for the amazing help.


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## YSHSfan (Jun 25, 2014)

Post some pics of the finished repair


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## nwcove (Mar 2, 2015)

be sure to post pics of the finished job !! and let your welder friend know that we will critique his work based on beer consumption......well thats how i critique my own welds.....they start out crappy, three beers in.....and im a master welder ! lol


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## Kiss4aFrog (Nov 3, 2013)

They work fine with the rear skids but they just need to be adjusted occasionally the same as if you had them on the side. It's anyone's guess how the PO screwed up that housing but the good news is you know a welder, hopefully you can supply him with photos and or dimensions of how that housing should be and in the end you'll have a sweet machine.


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## orangputeh (Nov 24, 2016)

I agree. the damage is not that bad . 

since you have gone this far , you can change the impeller bearing and belt if needed. take augers off the auger tranny and clean rust and corrosion etc. and apply anti-seize grease before putting back together. same for impeller. change impeller and auger shear pins.

also since the bucket is off you have a better view of the rest of the machine below. you can check cable anchor and springs and check bearing on the idlers , etc. probably some other stuff that i am missing and other members can chime in with. 

looking forward to after pics of auger housing.


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## KingTito (Jan 24, 2018)

My welder friend says he’s looking forward to showing off his work so he may not drink beer. He did ask a good question. He asked if anyone has any modification recommendations that he should make when repairing this. He doesn’t have any snowblower expertise. Nor do I. So if people have tips advice or recommendations for the repairs it’s appreciated.


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## ZOMGVTEK (Sep 25, 2014)

Unfortunately thats super common with most every machine I see around here. Flakes keep coming out the chute, so nobody cares to do anything. That damage isnt really a big deal, machines stored outside are the worst.

Fix it up and put side skids on it. If these machines came with the old commercial side skids from the factory, most of them would still be great after 20 years.


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## JnC (Feb 21, 2014)

KingTito said:


> My welder friend says he’s looking forward to showing off his work so he may not drink beer. He did ask a good question. He asked if anyone has any modification recommendations that he should make when repairing this. He doesn’t have any snowblower expertise. Nor do I. So if people have tips advice or recommendations for the repairs it’s appreciated.



The sides of the HS624/724 track machine's auger housing are not as sturdy as the other HS models as they use different auger housing. If you have side mounted skids installed then every now and then cause of the flimsiness of the sides the hardware that holds the shoes in place hits the fast spinning augers. 

This CAN and will break some shear bolts. 

Seeing that the side of the auger housing is slightly worn i'd say ask him to reinforce the side of the housing with some metal, may be an 1" or 2" wide metal strip thats at most is1/4" thick. 

After the plate is installed you can drill the holes in the side of the housing, countersink the plate on the inside and use countersunk bolts to install the skid shoes. 

I cant find the picture but thats what I did for my buddy's HS724 as well. The countersunk screws make sure that you never have the augers hit the protruded nuts/bolts. 

Here is the rough sketch of the plate shape, ideally it should be welded on the inside. If its on the inside it would also be a bit tricky to work around the sides of the scrapper plate so lets see how good your welder buddy is . 


The void between my drawn line at the bottom and the bottom of the housing is how much meat thats missing from the side of the auger housing. 

Honda paint to respray the newly welded parts. 

08707-R280 HONDA TUP POWER RED (Honda Code 7454085)


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## KingTito (Jan 24, 2018)

Thanks for the great tip. Going to talk to him about reinforcing it that way. Simple question. Are you sure it’s power red and not bright red?


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## KingTito (Jan 24, 2018)

Also I ordered the fall line skids. They aren’t here yet and we may work on this today. Hole spacing, diameter, distance from bottom of side place? Thanks again!


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## YSHSfan (Jun 25, 2014)

Instead of reinforcing it I'd cut the section off and install a thicker section to prevent corrosion build up between the housing and the reinforcing plate (it happens on older Yamahas which kind of have that).


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## cmb (Feb 13, 2014)

Well, this is news I didn't expect. Just bought the hardware I need to mount a pair of Bob Sayer's Armorskids on my HS 724. Per his advise, I bought the Pro-2425 size. Guess I need to contact him before I go further.


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## thefixer (Nov 19, 2017)

This is how I put skids on an 1132. The plate is 1/8 inch with a nut welded on the backside. The design of the side plate is different but the weld nuts will not contact the auger.


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## Shryp (Jan 1, 2011)

You guys might want to check on the clearance between the impeller and the drum it spins in once you get all the bearings nice and tight. Some people do an impeller mod by welding onto the impeller to extend it versus bolting the rubber paddles on. You guys can either build the edges up with weld or weld on plates. You just have to make sure there is enough room for the impeller to spin without hitting anything since it won't flex like rubber.


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## Clutch Cargo (Dec 27, 2015)

> this is common , actually, with owners that don't know any better and don't keep the scraper bar and skid shoes properly adjusted.


Agreed, and it doesn't matter what brand it is, the result would be the same. A good welder can probably repair it. The rest of the machine looks pretty good.


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## KingTito (Jan 24, 2018)

Repairs are done. My friend says he’s not ecstatic with how the welds turned out or the repairs in general but I think it will work well. He reinforced the side plates and added the Fall line skids. He felt as though it was good to cut out once side of the housing and weld in a new piece by the blade but just cleaned up the other side.


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## RedOctobyr (Mar 2, 2014)

It looks good to me! Wow, did he form new curved bottom pieces for you? Regardless, that's a nice repair, it should help get you back to a normally-functioning machine. Well done!


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## Boston_Rob (Feb 24, 2017)

Nice repair. Consider adjusting the scraper bar lower to be the sacrificial steel. I keep mine as low as it can go and adjusted the height of the side skids based on the type of driveway.


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## KingTito (Jan 24, 2018)

I use the machine on pavement that has it fair share of heaves and cracks.


So, just as a starting point, with the track set in the middle, I have the side and rear shoes adjusted to give the auger housing .6" of clearance (15mm).


I lowered the scraper bar until there is .150" of clearance (3.8mm).


If this set up is crazy, please let me know. Any advice is much appreciated.


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## KingTito (Jan 24, 2018)

RedOctobyr said:


> It looks good to me! Wow, did he form new curved bottom pieces for you? Regardless, that's a nice repair, it should help get you back to a normally-functioning machine. Well done!


He filled some of the area on the housing that was worn away with weld and the new pieces closely approximate what the original profile was. So, all together, the bottom end is re-formed to create a thicker bottom piece.


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## orangputeh (Nov 24, 2016)

KingTito said:


> Repairs are done. My friend says he’s not ecstatic with how the welds turned out or the repairs in general but I think it will work well. He reinforced the side plates and added the Fall line skids. He felt as though it was good to cut out once side of the housing and weld in a new piece by the blade but just cleaned up the other side.


that is an EXCELLENT looking job to me.

can you do about 6=7 housings for me?


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## KingTito (Jan 24, 2018)

Ha! I did none of the welding. I only disassembled and reassembled the machine!


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