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

I just used my brand new Honda 724ta snowblower for the first time. While working, I pulled a large branch into the auger and instead of shearing a bolt I killed engine. I thought shear bolts were meant to keep that from happening. The machine started right back up and ran fine afterwards but I'm concerned that something could have been damaged. Maybe someone here could put me at ease, or explain to me why the engine died instead of the bolt shearing. Also, I removed the bolt on the blower, not the auger, and it was slightly bent as if it had come close to breaking. Any advise would be appreciated. I realize I'm probably just being paranoid, but this damn machine was not cheap!

The machine is fine if everything is working normally.  The shear pin/bolt apparently did take some of the shock.  That's a good thing.  Were you running the engine at full throttle when you pulled in the branch?  If you were, it should have broke the shear pin.  If you were running at a lower throttle setting, that's likely why the engine stalled.  Also, being brand new might have something to do with the engine stalling.  It might not be up to it's full capability yet.  

The fact that this happened to you might be a good omen.  Honda blowers are famous for having the augers rust solid to the stub shafts coming out of the gear box due to insufficient lubrication.  When that happens, it can be next to impossible to free them up.  It is strongly recommended that you grease between the stub shaft and auger tube.  You'd also be wise to drill and tap the auger tube to receive a zerk fitting for future greasing. 

For such an expensive machine, I find it ridiculous not to have zerk fittings on the auger tubes.

Show us some pictures where you think it is bent? Where do you live? How did you pull a large branch into the auger?  Do you have a picture of the sinful branch?

Thanks for the quick responses. I don't had any photos of the branch because my first reaction was to throw it as far as I could. The branch was pointing straight towards the machine, and my guess is that it skipped the auger and stuck straight into the blower and immediately killed the engine. At least that was what it looked like. I saw that the bolts weren't broken and continued working. When I was done I took my earplugs out and engaged the auger clutch with the engine at it's slowest speed and heard a strange metallic clicking sound. That was when I started investigating and found the blower shear bolt had been almost broken. It had a step in it as if it had come close to shearing but didn't, and was slightly bent in the very middle of the bolt. I think the clicking was from the play created by the bent bolt. I have taken your advise and disassembled the header of the machine and will anti-seize the shafts, and I will add grease fittings soon. Great advise. Also, I'm fairly certain the machine was running full throttle when this happened. I'm going to get new shear bolts tomorrow and will hope this solves the strange sound. Thanks again.

I suspect that the branch was a bit "rubbery" - unlike, say, a piece of concrete. It probably shared some of the shock along with the shear bolt, whereas if it was concrete the shear bolt would have obsorbed all of the shock and been broken.

I anti-seized the blower and auger shafts and installed a new shear bolt. The noise is gone and all seems well. All I need to do now is coat the inside of the header and chute with canola oil since I live here in Washington and the snow is always heavy and wet. If I had a little more dough I would have gotten one of the bigger models to deal with it but I found that if I just push the machine a little harder it doesn't plug as much. Thanks for the advice.

You should put a plastic liner in the chute.  I made one for my Simplicity out of one of those kid's Krazy Karpets sold in stores for around $8.00.  It's super slick and durable.