On Wed, 3 Feb 2021 08:56:07 -0800 (PST), DerbyDad03
wrote:
On Wednesday, February 3, 2021 at 8:14:03 AM UTC-5, J. Clarke wrote:
On Wed, 03 Feb 2021 04:24:42 -0500, wrote:
On Tue, 02 Feb 2021 21:46:46 -0500, J. Clarke
wrote:
Went out to blow snow and, as usual, the damned belt is off the damned
snowblower. It's an Ariens, it's not old, and this is a known problem
with the model. I've tried all the reasonable fixes that I see on
various Web sites and Youtube (I'm not going to go buy a lathe to turn
a new redesigned pulley, which one guy who had a lathe did). It used
to be that it needed the belt on at the start of the season, but it
seems like now it needs it before every storm.
My old Ariens, that some #$%^&*( stole, gave me no trouble.
So, this group has a lot of wisdom about a great many things. My
options that I see are to keep fixing the thing until spring and then
look for an old Ariens on Craigslist and take my chances with its
condition, or bite the bullet and spend for a Honda (if I can find
one) on the basis of Japanese engineering and workmanship, or do
something else (moving to Florida is not an option).
So, any advice? And yeah, I know I could shovel. I've reached an age
and state of decripitude where that's not advisable.
Here's one possible fix :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81FOs8otCQs
That's one of the "reasonable fixes" that I've tried to no avail. If
it's on Youtube and doesn't involve a lathe I have probably tried it.
Looks like a dumb design to start with.
It looked like there was a 2nd "fix" towards to the end of the video:
the bending of the bracket. Did you try that too?
What about a bigger OD nut? Maybe your SB is more worn than usual and
moving that pully just a little closer might help? Epoxy a washer or 2 to the
side of the nut as a try.
What about that spring loaded pully? Could it have lost some tension?
(Just wondering if you've actually fixed the known issue but there's a
2nd issue lurking elsewhere.)
What about rigging up a guard that would prevent the belt from jumping
off the pully?
"The belt seems to come off when the thing is just sitting idle. There's
a cover over it and I don't usually take that cover off until the belt has
come adrift so don't know the exact progression, but it's fine at the end
of one storm and at the start of the next one I have to put the belt back on."
I'd pull that cover as soon as I was done with the next blow. I'd look at the
state of the belt at shutdown and then again before startup. Then I'd watch
it during startup. I doubt it's falling off while sitting idle - you could hook up
a camera to be sure. ;-)
My guess is that it's related to the first cold start after sitting idle. Something
stuck, frozen, vibrating, etc. Does it ever come off during a re-start after it's all
warmed up? If not, look for a cold start issue like listed above. If yes, still look
for something loose, jerking, etc. that occurs while the SB is getting up to speed.
Good luck!
And if it is the stiffness of the belt get a hi-flex belt - one with
a notched or segmented face. They flex sideways a lot better than
either a standard raw-dace or worse yet a wrapped belt.
In the case of the auger belt on my machine it is a BX35 series belt
instead of a B35