# HS55 auger gear case lubrication



## williaea (Nov 27, 2019)

Hi everyone. So I think I got the auger belt tension in decent shape on a tracked HS55 I picked up a couple months ago. I have another question. When I engage the auger it makes a bit more noise than I have heard from other snowblowers before (and quite a bit more than a wheeled HS55 I picked up a few weeks ago). I figure it's got to either be the auger bearing or the auger gearbox. This got me thinking that I should check the lubricant in the gearbox. Well when I went to look at the gearbox.... I can't find any place to check / fill it! Is this a service that needs the gearbox to be disassembled to check / change / fill? Thanks in advance. I know I should buy a service manual, but I'm not sure if I'm going to be keeping this snow blower yet or not.... so I would hate to spend that money if it's going to just get flipped. Thanks for any advice anyone can offer. 

Eric


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## orangputeh (Nov 24, 2016)

williaea said:


> Hi everyone. So I think I got the auger belt tension in decent shape on a tracked HS55 I picked up a couple months ago. I have another question. When I engage the auger it makes a bit more noise than I have heard from other snowblowers before (and quite a bit more than a wheeled HS55 I picked up a few weeks ago). I figure it's got to either be the auger bearing or the auger gearbox. This got me thinking that I should check the lubricant in the gearbox. Well when I went to look at the gearbox.... I can't find any place to check / fill it! Is this a service that needs the gearbox to be disassembled to check / change / fill? Thanks in advance. I know I should buy a service manual, but I'm not sure if I'm going to be keeping this snow blower yet or not.... so I would hate to spend that money if it's going to just get flipped. Thanks for any advice anyone can offer.
> 
> Eric


on a 55 the auger gearbox has a drain plug right in the middle. remove it and oil should come out if it is full to that point. if not fill with 75-90w gl5 oil. 

it may be the impeller bearing also. if there is kinda like a roaring sound then that may be it. with engine off you can pull on the impeller and see if there seems to be excess play. being that this machine is over 30 years old it may need a new bearing. the bucket has to be removed.

picture shows a gearbox with the plug removed in the middle. on the older HS50 there is no drain plug. it is a closed unit.


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## williaea (Nov 27, 2019)

I wonder if there was a running change in that auger gearbox case during the HS55 model production. Here is a picture of what I have (both on the HS55 wheeled and tracked models that I bought recently - they both look like this). Both of mine are early serial numbers, so I'm assuming like 1984ish... 

So I guess the next question is whether that gearbox looks like a HS50 gearbox to you??


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## williaea (Nov 27, 2019)

OOPS! That picture didn't upload... I'll try again...


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## orangputeh (Nov 24, 2016)

williaea said:


> OOPS! That picture didn't upload... I'll try again...


yup . never saw a 55 with that gearbox. maybe it is an early model 55. so you think the noise is coming from it? I guess you could drill a hole , tap it , and use an oil plug if you need to fill with oil. this is a bad design especially if one of the seals went bad and all the oil leaked out.

I guess Honda expects you to remove and dismantle and replace seals. there is a video on you tube from donyboy73 on how to do this.


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## williaea (Nov 27, 2019)

Ugh! That's what I was afraid of. I think I'll do some more investigation before I go the drilling route. I had actually thought of that, but hoped to avoid it as I don't want to run metal shavings into the gearbox. At a bare minimum I'll pull the auger housing off the blower and check the impeller bearing.

Thanks for the information! I need to stop buying old snowblowers! haha! 

Eric


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## orangputeh (Nov 24, 2016)

williaea said:


> Ugh! That's what I was afraid of. I think I'll do some more investigation before I go the drilling route. I had actually thought of that, but hoped to avoid it as I don't want to run metal shavings into the gearbox. At a bare minimum I'll pull the auger housing off the blower and check the impeller bearing.
> 
> Thanks for the information! I need to stop buying old snowblowers! haha!
> 
> Eric


you can keep filings from getting into gearbox by dipping bit into grease before drilling. same with tap.


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## Toats MaGoats (Feb 19, 2019)

Upgrade to the gearbox WITH drain and fill ports

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk


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