With my dad going to see the place he bought the log splitter about the oil plug tomorrow, I took the log splitter out of the garage and moved the snowblower in to service it. Last year it would not shift properly, and I was relegated to second speed forward. Reverse was non-existent. I had to man handle the Toro PowerMax when I needed to reverse. Thankfully the winter did not call for too many times for me to use it. Determined not to pay for it to be serviced, I searched the web and found that my Toro is a disk drive and the shaft for the drive disk had rust on it preventing the me from shifting. In order to remove the rust, I need to put the snowblowers axles on jacks to expose the belly plate. With access to the belly plate, I was able to remove that, and then use a wire wheel to remove the rust off the drive shaft. Even with the rust off the drive shaft, I couldn't move the shifter. I had to spray the base of the drive disk with a penetrating lubricating spray. After letting that sit for a while, I was finally able to move the shifter slightly. With a little more time, it finally came free. Finally with the shifter free, I was able to use the wire wheel to clear the remainder of the drive shaft. Tomorrow when my dad is out, he's going to get me some lithium grease to put on the driveshaft to keep it from rusting up anytime soon. While I was doing this, I noticed that the best for auger is in rough shape. Splitting and it's warped. I Googled how to replace the belt, and that appears to be a simple replacement. I'll pick up a new belt, spark plug and oil before Turkey day, and replace it, the plug and oil over the weekend. That way the snowblower is ready for the next storm. I must say that I am not overly impressed with the Toro. The amount of rust on it after just 6 years is not what I expected. It's stored indoors, and I clean it off after each use. I took the wire wheel and knocked off as much rust as I could, and will need to get a matching paint to cover those spots. Hoping the dealer I bought the Toro from has a matching paint. Jason from RI.
Maybe its caused by where it is stored? A damp garage has a natural affinity for any uncoated/untreated metal surface. Good on you getting it back to where it should be with a little effort!
The drive shaft I understand. It's the painted surfaces rusting and bubbling that I am surprised at. I'll take some pictures of the pieces that I knocked the rust and the bubbled up paint off. You'll get an idea. Then I'll take some pictures of the areas I've not gotten to yet or hard to read. Either way I plan to make sure that I take care of all of the rusted and bubbled up paint before I use the snowblower this season. Maybe it's time I look at heating my garage to get rid of the moisture. Even keeping it at 58 would do the trick. The longterm plan is to build a small barn to put all of our small equipment in. Freeing up the garage for a car. Heating it would help for whatever car ends up in there.
I think you are supposed to oil that shaft yearly, has that been done? I just serviced the one at work so I was just reading the manual.
I'd have to get out the manual. It's possible that you are suppose to lube the shaft annually. The problem with lubing that shaft is getting to it. Your average home owner is not lubing that shaft. To get to the underbelly, I had to put the snowblower up on jacks. I'll take a picture of it when I get home. I do know that I will be including putting lithium grease on it annually to my maintenance schedule.
The manual for the one at work stated that the shaft should be lubed annually. It is hard to get to and I was surprised to see that it did have oil on it.
