Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

The other day the attachment/Auger belt jumped off the pulley of my Ariens 824.  (Thankfully it happened after I had cleared the whole driveway).  The belt is still intact. According to the manual, I have to remove the whole front housing to replace the belt.  My questions are:


Thanks in advance,.

Steve

No - it's a 2001 Ariens and the warranty is up.  I've worked on it before and it is generally easy.  It's just that it's 5ºF out and I don't think my wife wants me to roll the snowblower in by the woodstove.  A major repair in the barn would be unpleasant, but not unbearable.

Steve

Steve, On my Ariens you have to half split the machine to change the belts. Not familiar with your set-up, but perhaps loosening/removing the idlers would give you enough slack. You should also try to figure out why the belt jumped off. Perhaps a pulley is loose and out of line. In regards to replacing both belts at the same time, I'd do it if you have alot of hours on them, they show signs of wear, etc., and you find that there is alot of labor involved in doing the job and figure you might as well do both while you have it apart. Jonathan

If it just hopped off track, i would think you could take off the belt hosuing cover, stand the machine on its nose and remove the bottom cover, and be able to re seat the belt (you should be able to loosen the brake and slide it away from the belt pulley, reseat the belt and then replace it.  Same holds true for the guides up top.  While you're there,  make sure your drive disc is ok(have you had the R3 done?)  After you re seat the belt adjust the idler to prevent it from happening again.  To answer your question, breaking apart the housing is not a fun thing to do.  I actually think the manual says follow a procedure similar to the one i wrote when replacing belts.

I have  had the R3 done. 

It seems like I should be able to get in there,  I suspect I should remove the idler as well.  I think the belt hopped off instead of the shear pins breaking when I ate a (not very large I might add) stick.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Steve

Don't try to remove the idler and bracket, just pull the pulley itself off the bracket, to give you wiggle room.  The belt brake down near the bottom of the machine and the other guides are the things you need to get to, which is why you should tip it up on end, that's what i do every year when i do my preseason checks to check the belt path and travel.  Perhaps it popped on you cause it had gotton too loose-- that can happen.  Then when there is enough resistance to the augers to create stress on the belt but not enough to shear a pin the belt would pop off.  I would think though if it were THAT loose you would have smelled it :)  Check for glazing on the belt too to make sure its ok.

I replaced the belt on my 1974 824 a few weeks ago.  My manual also says to separate the auger housing from the drive housing.  I tried to feed the new belt around the pulleys for about 15 minutes, then gave up.  

It took less than 15 minutes to separate the housings, put on the new belt, check everything over, and re-attach housings ( I had to remove the chute angle adjuster, too).  The new belt rubbed on the wire metal "guides" that I suppose are to keep the belt from bouncing.  I had to adust them slightly.  I don't think I would have seen that if the halves were together. 

It was also easier adjusting the idler pulley. 

My two cents. 

Good luck. 

Sorry for the additional post, but I didn't answer all your questions.  I'm familier with my 824 with one belt, but things should be similar. 

Separating the two halves is easy.  It helps to have another person, but not at all necessary.  I first removed the chute adjuster from the chute by removing the one nut (at the chute end), then setting the rod assembly out of the way.  You may remove it in a different manner, just look at what would be easiest. 

You also might have to remove something that adjusts the auger drive belt, I'm not sure. 

Find something reasonably solid like a milk crate and place it behind the unit (under the handlebar area). 

There are two bolts on either side of the unit near the top of the auger assy where it meets the drive section.  Remove them, but be careful, when they are removed, the two halves can now pivot apart, hinged on a rod at the bottom of the unit (this is where the second person is helpful).  The auger assy has a kind of notch that hooks onto this rod.  This is where the milk crate under the handlebars comes in handy- to prevent the drive assy from tipping backwards. 

Once separated, everything should be visible.  Try and figure out why the belt fell off.  Might be stretched.  I would replace both belts while you're in there. The belts are not too expensive.  Keep the old ones as emergency spares.  I haven't replace the belts on my two-belt 824 yet, but re-attaching the auger belt may be a little trickier than the one-belt system when re-attaching the halves.

Good Luck

Ralph 

 

I finally got the chance to address my problem today and found that both approaches (taking the housing off and not taking the housing off) were right.

I first removed the belt cover and bottom plate, drained the fuel, and tipped the machine onto the Auger housing.  Sure enough, it was easy to put the belt back on the pulleys and get myself back in business.  After I put the belt on, I tipped the unit back, added some fuel and started it up to check for problems.

 The Auger pulley was shimmying and the belt was dancing around.  Closer inspection revealed that the cast hub that attached the pulley to the shaft was cracked.  I followed the instructions in the manual and split the housing from the engine assembly (using the tailgate of  my pickup instead of a milk crate).  It wasn't a bad job at all.  Turns out my local dealer has the part in stock, so I should be back in action tomorrow.  (I will swap the belts as well.)

Thanks to all for your advice.  It made the job very easy and worry-free.

Steve