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

any real difference between the ariens belts or generic belts for the drive and attachment?  went to john deere and bought the two belts for $42.00 and I beleave they were gravely.  I checked and lubed from front to back  and while doing so I  tipped the machine up on it's auger housing and removed the bottom rear cover for inspection. one of the things I noticed was the two drive chains and gears were kind of binding some when I rotated the tires and the drive components rotated. I loosened up the drive gear shaft nuts on both ends and rotated the tires again. first thing I noticed was the bind was gone but the chains were too loose. upon tightening the gear shaft a bind was introduced onto the gearset. appears the cheap thrust washers  on each side of the gearset were bent and binding on the gears. after completely removing the gears and shaft and cleaning them for inspection I decided to narrow the gearset using a flat  diamond  hone. I took approx.  .015" off of each side, replaced the bent thrust washers with grade 8 washers, reinstalled and tightened everything down.  after assembly the chains seem to roll with allot less binding if they have some freeplay in them instead of being tight and the gearset  is now narrower than the shouldered shaft and has some visible clearance.

Ariens bought Gravely quite a few years ago. I have noticed a lot of parts from both machines has the same part number so I am sure they are the same exact part. As for what belts to get, any belt of the correct size should work. The drive belt probably isn't too critical as there isn't a lot of force on it, but for the auger attachment belt make sure to get a heavy duty Kevlar reinforced belt that specifies it is for clutching, high torque or OPE applications. $42 is probably a bit expensive, but not overly. Regular belts would probably cost $5-10 and Kevlar belts are probably about $10-$20. Most of those chain systems in the Ariens drive were adjustable. It isn't really noticeable with all the dirt, grease and washers under there, but if you loosen the nuts on both ends of the sprocket there should be a slot in the frame so you can loosen or tighten the chains.

shyrp!  I did loosen the two nuts to adjust the chains and when I tightened them back up after adjusting that's when I noticed the  binding. I could not tighten the nuts because it would bind the gear set. new grade 8 washers used as thrust washers  and clearancing the gear set let me tighten it down without any binding.