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.

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.
Which belt? wat kind of belt are you using? Are the bvelt guides
properly afjusted? Is the belt jumping, flipping, breaking, shredding?

On Tue, 02 Feb 2021 23:08:45 -0500, Clare Snyder
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.
Which belt? wat kind of belt are you using? Are the bvelt guides
properly afjusted? Is the belt jumping, flipping, breaking, shredding?

This is the belt that drives the wheels.

The problem is the design of the drive system. They cheaped out and
used the pulley as a clutch--it slides on its shaft and when you
engage the drive what happens is that the pully is slid down the shaft
to be held against the corresponding piece on the axle by spring
tension.

The downside of this is that when the drive is not engaged the pulley
that acts as clutch is offset from the pulley on the engine. The
result is that the belt easily slips off the pulley. If the thing
hasn't been run for a while and the belt has stiffened up a little,
off it comes every time.

There is a stop for the pulley and the documented fix is to put some
hose on the stop to restrict the movement of the pulley. Well that
was not sufficient. I tried a nut on it, still insufficient. And
there is a limit to how much it can be shimmed because shimming it too
far means that the clutch can't disengage.

The alternative fix is to move the pulley on the engine shaft, but it
is made such that the pulley is one big chunk of metal the whole
length of the shaft, the other end of that chunk of metal is the drive
pulleys for the blower, and there isn't clearance to move it, so the
only way to move it is to make a new one with the drive pulley for the
wheels shifted to more closely align with the clutch pulley.

The belt is a conventional V-belt, sold by Ariens for this specific
purpose. There are no belt guides. 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.

Note that googling "Ariens snowblower drive belt keeps coming off"
gets nearly a million hits, and when I run that search the first two
are videos which explain the problem more effectively than I can.

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

John T.

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.

John T.

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!

On Wed, 03 Feb 2021 08:13:59 -0500, 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
John T.

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.


Are you able to dis-engage it s l o w l y ?
.... so that the pulley stops spinning before it is
fully released to the fully off-set position .
Just a thought .
John T.

On Wed, 03 Feb 2021 00:18:51 -0500, J. Clarke
wrote:

On Tue, 02 Feb 2021 23:08:45 -0500, Clare Snyder
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.
Which belt? wat kind of belt are you using? Are the bvelt guides
properly afjusted? Is the belt jumping, flipping, breaking, shredding?

This is the belt that drives the wheels.

The problem is the design of the drive system. They cheaped out and
used the pulley as a clutch--it slides on its shaft and when you
engage the drive what happens is that the pully is slid down the shaft
to be held against the corresponding piece on the axle by spring
tension.

The downside of this is that when the drive is not engaged the pulley
that acts as clutch is offset from the pulley on the engine. The
result is that the belt easily slips off the pulley. If the thing
hasn't been run for a while and the belt has stiffened up a little,
off it comes every time.

There is a stop for the pulley and the documented fix is to put some
hose on the stop to restrict the movement of the pulley. Well that
was not sufficient. I tried a nut on it, still insufficient. And
there is a limit to how much it can be shimmed because shimming it too
far means that the clutch can't disengage.

The alternative fix is to move the pulley on the engine shaft, but it
is made such that the pulley is one big chunk of metal the whole
length of the shaft, the other end of that chunk of metal is the drive
pulleys for the blower, and there isn't clearance to move it, so the
only way to move it is to make a new one with the drive pulley for the
wheels shifted to more closely align with the clutch pulley.

The belt is a conventional V-belt, sold by Ariens for this specific
purpose. There are no belt guides. 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.

Note that googling "Ariens snowblower drive belt keeps coming off"
gets nearly a million hits, and when I run that search the first two
are videos which explain the problem more effectively than I can.

have you tried this fix?

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q...&F ORM=VDQVAP
I worked for an Ariens dealer ages ago and we never had those
problems. Seams they have cheapened the mechanism just like MTD and
others. I don't have those friction drive problems anymore since I
bought a hydrostatic Yamaha. Hydrostatic Hondas also solve the problem
Also it appears the steel rod "cage" that bolts to the motor leaves
too much space between the cage and the belt which can allow the belt
to jump off the small pulley. I think if I still had an ariens I would
re-bend that cage to not allow the belt to come out of the groove
(long with the adjuster nut fix) Just remember that nut MUST be a
prevailing torque type nut - either a Nylock or a "stover" style self
locking nut

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

John T.
Another thing that helps is to use a "hi-flex" notched drive belt - -

On Wed, 03 Feb 2021 12:25:02 -0500, wrote:

On Wed, 03 Feb 2021 08:13:59 -0500, 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
John T.

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.


Are you able to dis-engage it s l o w l y ?
... so that the pulley stops spinning before it is
fully released to the fully off-set position .

I'm not sure I understand what you're suggesting.

While it's running the pulley never stops spinning. The clutch
mechanism is that the pulley, while spinning, is pressed against
another piece.

Just a thought .
John T.

On Wed, 03 Feb 2021 13:00:11 -0500, Clare Snyder
wrote:

On Wed, 03 Feb 2021 00:18:51 -0500, J. Clarke
wrote:

On Tue, 02 Feb 2021 23:08:45 -0500, Clare Snyder
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.
Which belt? wat kind of belt are you using? Are the bvelt guides
properly afjusted? Is the belt jumping, flipping, breaking, shredding?

This is the belt that drives the wheels.

The problem is the design of the drive system. They cheaped out and
used the pulley as a clutch--it slides on its shaft and when you
engage the drive what happens is that the pully is slid down the shaft
to be held against the corresponding piece on the axle by spring
tension.

The downside of this is that when the drive is not engaged the pulley
that acts as clutch is offset from the pulley on the engine. The
result is that the belt easily slips off the pulley. If the thing
hasn't been run for a while and the belt has stiffened up a little,
off it comes every time.

There is a stop for the pulley and the documented fix is to put some
hose on the stop to restrict the movement of the pulley. Well that
was not sufficient. I tried a nut on it, still insufficient. And
there is a limit to how much it can be shimmed because shimming it too
far means that the clutch can't disengage.

The alternative fix is to move the pulley on the engine shaft, but it
is made such that the pulley is one big chunk of metal the whole
length of the shaft, the other end of that chunk of metal is the drive
pulleys for the blower, and there isn't clearance to move it, so the
only way to move it is to make a new one with the drive pulley for the
wheels shifted to more closely align with the clutch pulley.

The belt is a conventional V-belt, sold by Ariens for this specific
purpose. There are no belt guides. 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.

Note that googling "Ariens snowblower drive belt keeps coming off"
gets nearly a million hits, and when I run that search the first two
are videos which explain the problem more effectively than I can.

have you tried this fix?

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q...&F ORM=VDQVAP

That was the second thing I tried.

I worked for an Ariens dealer ages ago and we never had those
problems. Seams they have cheapened the mechanism just like MTD and
others. I don't have those friction drive problems anymore since I
bought a hydrostatic Yamaha. Hydrostatic Hondas also solve the problem
Also it appears the steel rod "cage" that bolts to the motor leaves
too much space between the cage and the belt which can allow the belt
to jump off the small pulley. I think if I still had an ariens I would
re-bend that cage to not allow the belt to come out of the groove
(long with the adjuster nut fix) Just remember that nut MUST be a
prevailing torque type nut - either a Nylock or a "stover" style self
locking nut

The thing is, it comes off the big one, not the little one. There
really should be some guides on the big one.

Here's one possible fix :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81FOs8otCQs
John T.

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.


Are you able to dis-engage it s l o w l y ?
... so that the pulley stops spinning before it is
fully released to the fully off-set position .
Just a thought .
John T.

I'm not sure I understand what you're suggesting.
While it's running the pulley never stops spinning. The clutch
mechanism is that the pulley, while spinning, is pressed against
another piece.


OK Sorry - I was thinking that the pulley
was engaged by the clutch plate -
not the other-way-round .
John T.

On Wed, 03 Feb 2021 13:40:25 -0500, wrote:


Here's one possible fix :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81FOs8otCQs
John T.

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.


Are you able to dis-engage it s l o w l y ?
... so that the pulley stops spinning before it is
fully released to the fully off-set position .
Just a thought .
John T.

I'm not sure I understand what you're suggesting.
While it's running the pulley never stops spinning. The clutch
mechanism is that the pulley, while spinning, is pressed against
another piece.


OK Sorry - I was thinking that the pulley
was engaged by the clutch plate -
not the other-way-round .
John T.

I may be looking at this the wrong way. For the price of a Honda
snowblower I could get a lathe adequate to the task of remanufacturing
the drive on this thing.

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

John T.
The old rof controlled units gave a LOT less trouble. I'f be popping
the pan off and seing if there is a way to limit how far the swing
plate can move away from the friction wheel. I'm sure there is a block
of some sort to limit the movement that you could either afjust or
modify to keep the swing plate / pulley assembly from moving too far
away from the friction disc, causing the mis-alignment. Mabee add a
piece of angle iron to the side of the drive housing with an ajustable
stop bolt that blocks the swing plate? Not having one here, or even
good pictures - or even exactly what model, makes it like working
blind with mittens on - but there HAS to be a simple solution to -
what boils down to- a simple mechanical problem of excessive travel.

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

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.

Snowblower? Wazzat?

On 2/3/2021 9:07 PM, 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.

Snowblower? Wazzat?



It was marked OT.. LOL

On 2/3/2021 12:53 PM, Clare Snyder 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

John T.
The old rof controlled units gave a LOT less trouble. I'f be popping
the pan off and seing if there is a way to limit how far the swing
plate can move away from the friction wheel. I'm sure there is a block
of some sort to limit the movement that you could either afjust or
modify to keep the swing plate / pulley assembly from moving too far
away from the friction disc, causing the mis-alignment. Mabee add a
piece of angle iron to the side of the drive housing with an ajustable
stop bolt that blocks the swing plate? Not having one here, or even
good pictures - or even exactly what model, makes it like working
blind with mittens on - but there HAS to be a simple solution to -
what boils down to- a simple mechanical problem of excessive travel.



How about a picture, worth a thousand words. With a pic suggestions
might be more focused.

"J. Clarke" wrote in message
...

On Wed, 03 Feb 2021 04:24:42 -0500, wrote:

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.

Perhaps using two of those Nyloc nuts with a couple flat washers between
them would shift the pulley over enough? It might be worth a buck to try
it out...

Regarding old snowblowers. My sons moved out so all snow removal was now my
job. Knowing this my buddy gave me one that dates from about 1980 that was
in his family. It had a lot of little things wrong with it... The exhaust
valve was sticking so I gave it a valve job. The auger belt was shot. Many
fasteners were missing. The skids were worn through. The auger belt idler
pulley bearings were shot. The pull starter wasn't working correctly. The
chute was cracked. When all is said and done I'll have about $130 in parts
in the thing. That might seem like a lot but a comparable new one (HP and
width) is $1,000+ and they are very lightly built with lots of plastic
compared to the one I rebuilt. Of course if I was paying someone to do this
work I'd have thrown it away as at $100+/Hour plus "retail" for the parts it
would have been an expensive rehab. Sort of like with old woodworking tools
and machines... you pay for it one way or another. ;~)