So I put the new chain on the auger gear and started putting the stuff back in. The drive side has a U bracket you have to get the axle into and that's a pain in the *REAR*. But it's in, the adjusting collar allens are facing the wrong way and I really don't care because I tightened them before assembly.
Tightened up the bolts, put the motor connectors back on, closed it up, and fired up the blower.
*QUIET* There is a bit of chain whine, but the chain is properly perpindicular to the drive motor sprocket, so it's probably just new chain noise. The chain felt factory lubed, so I'm not adding grease at this time. Maybe I should later?
Oh the chain fits perfectly with no real slack but no pressure on the bearings. Apparently the old chain had just stretched over the half century.
Now.... Now I'm ready for 3-5 or 12-18 inches of snow or whatnot. I'll turn the tractor around and put it on charge. The only thing I do need is the ice scraper at the bottom; anyone have one of those along with all the little bolts and nuts for it?
Mission accomplished and the blower should be good for another 50 or so years. When the next owner reads this they will thank me for using anti-seize on all the main bolts. And they are the original ones; modern bolts are made out of garbage steel.
Chris On 2/21/26 16:12, Chris Zach via Elec-trak wrote:
Snowblower day, as it may snow tomorrow night. Least it's warm so I have been able to get a lot done.First, new bearings arrived. Same size, however the collars are a big different and the set screws are 3mm metric, not SAE like the old ones. And the set screw threads are different, probably metric as well. Oh well, each of us has to deal with the fact that the world has passed us by....Putting them back in was not difficult, apparently they are held in place by the pressure of the bearing race plates you bolt on. So you put one bearing on (for me drive side), put the shaft into the auger (after using a magnet to fish the remaining ball bearing out), put the end plate on with the thin washer under it, snug the bolts down somewhat, put the other bearing and plate on the other side, snug those bolts down, then tighten the bearing bolts and you're in business. Not that complicated and I have no clue why the old bearing did not come out. Maybe I should have just whacked it with a hammer instead of cutting it apart....I also found an old small container of POR15 and painted the inside of the chute and the inside of the blower housing. This stuff is interesting, it's "Paint over rust" and I last put some on the chute in 2000 and it was pretty much mostly there. It's close to indestructable when dry; glassy smooth, and binds to rust to both pull water out of it and to prevent any oxygen from getting in. So now the inside of the blower is glass smooth, hard as a rock, and should keep snow from sticking no matter how wet and cruddy it is.I'll be going out in a bit to put the auger back in and start working on reseating the motor. I took off the bolt to allow a new lug for the power wire, cleaned up the interconnect and the original bolts and it's pretty much ready to go. HEAVY beyond belief, no question there. But I should be able to get it in and hooked up to the new (shorter) chain and see how that works. Same number of links as the old one but was impossible to get the master link closed in the snow. Now with the motor off it should be better.....Onward. On 2/15/26 18:11, Chris Zach via Elec-trak wrote:Well, after a day of whacking at it the central shaft is out.The main snowblower shaft is attached to the auger by two bearings, and a collar with an allen key lock that goes over the end of each side. Fair enough. I don't see evidence of a circlip at the outside end of the bearing but there is an inner collar that seems to be part of the bearing race.Tried using a puller on that; no dice. Tried a torch for 5 mins on the inner race no dice. Finally resorted to using the dremel and cutting into the top half of the bearing; enough that I was able to remove enough balls (several were gone) so the bearing fell apart and I was able to take the shaft out the other side.Shaft is really dirty and the bearings are probably rusted on. Took it to the shed and just dunked the good (ish) bearing side in a bucket of carburator dip and will leave it for a week, then try pulling it off from the back of the bearing (the "right way to do it).Then I'll flip it over and repeat On 2/14/26 17:08, Chris Zach via Elec-trak wrote:Hi all!Well it was 50 degrees today so I figured I'd start tearing down my E20's snowblower. The model I have is the AD42BA model with the motor on the left and the big chute. Pretty standard snowblower.Haven't found any documents on overhauling it, but there is a Elec-trak document with the parts schematic that gives a good idea of where everything goes. 1-3-74.pdf on the third page. There might be some instructions in the larger PDFs, but I'll just get started with this. If anyone knows a better tear down plan let me know.First step is to remove the motor. This is simpler than I thought: Winch it all the way up on the tractor, then get underneath and remove the 4 bolts holding the motor on, then break the factory wire lug on the motor, curse, and pull the whole thing out. It's a HEAVY motor, but oddly enough the bolts were in fine shape. In fact ALL the bolts are coming out without issue, I guess they used high quality American bolts or something when they built this in 1973.Anyway remove the smaller bolts on the side to get the chain and bearing guards off, then remove the six bolts and two big end bolts to get the auger out. The left side is held in by a sideways H bracket, right side just with the normal bolt in the center.With the auger out you remove the six bolts for the drive gear, then use a puller to remove the two collars marked 24. These have a single allen set screw in them, one did take a bit of penetrating oil to remove. Then I suppose you just tap out the axle, but I haven't gotten that far yet.Anyway, it's a start. I'm guessing the bearings are part 23 and need to be pulled from the inside on the auger then new bearings put in.So any clue on good replacement bearings and if anyone has an ice scraper? For the rest I am going to clean up the motor, put in the new chain, and spend some time reseating the skids so the blower doesn't drag on the pavement. Then I'll POR15 the inside of the blower housing and the chute and it should be ready for another 50 years....C _______________________________________________ Elec-trak mailing list Elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu https://cosmos.phy.tufts.edu/mailman/listinfo/elec-trak_______________________________________________ Elec-trak mailing list Elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu https://cosmos.phy.tufts.edu/mailman/listinfo/elec-trak_______________________________________________ Elec-trak mailing list Elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu https://cosmos.phy.tufts.edu/mailman/listinfo/elec-trak