>>I hadn't given much consideration to repairing the gearbox as I was so disgusted with how this one failed, I immediately swore to replace it with a cast iron one.
Yep, it’s aluminum but the Ariens from those years are ok and without abuse easily last 20-25 years.
>>I would have thought a shear bolt would break, not a dowel pin or whatever failed internally.
Often they are keyed or have a dowel pin that breaks. The ones I’ve opened on 924’s have a dowel shear pin through a collar on the side of the gear. If you have not opened up your gearbox how do you know the pin is not broken? Is the case cracked?
Sometimes the gears do break and cases crack but chances are decent it could only be the shear pin. I fixed one two weeks ago on a mid-80’s machine. The gear was fine and plenty of meat on the teeth to last another 15-20 years. The fix was a few bucks but I put in new parts just because it was apart and the parts not so expensive.
>>One possibility is to swap out the whole complete assembly of a 24 inch round nose
>>you mentioned about replacing the entire assembly with a round nose type from a 9240 -26, 28, 32 machine, that seems like it would definitely work.
Check the drawings for those models at the Ariens site. They looked like a swap to me.
Since you have a running machine you could hold out for a junker on Craigslist and swap out the whole bucket. It would be another unknown but they are decent gearboxes. You just have bad Karma.
>>You mentioned the CI replacement runs anywhere from $199 to $375, do you have any idea who would have this for $199? I was only able to find one at Jacks small engines for $250.
Snowman said a list of $180 but I have not seen that price. I’m helping a guy online who is swapping out his and checked prices and so did he. The best we came up with is $199 from Boston Lawnmower in Westboro, MA. That’s right off 495 on route 9 if your in northern CT. Dealer suggested prices are high enough but evidently the dealers are adding quite a bit of pork onto the $180.
