Frozen gear box on snowblower

Hi Folks, It appears that I have a frozen gear box on my snowblower. It worked great yesterday but I guess the cold weather last night froze the gear box, So I'm unable to change gears. Any suggestions would be great.

Thanks

Reply to
Platebanger
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take snowbolower to a heated space? change lubricant when you can, if its old it might be sludged up

Reply to
hallerb

Is it the gearbox that is frozen, or a control cable that got water in it?

CWM

Reply to
Charlie Morgan

I ran the snowblower in my shed for about 15 minutes. After the engine was hot enought to melt any ice and the gears started tol work again.

Thanks

Reply to
Platebanger

Reply to
jacko

Hi

It might not be the gearbox, but the cables.

I don't have a problem with my gearbox cables but with those that swivel the snow chute. In order to get it to rotate, I have to heat the cables with a paint stripper gun and then they will operate. Once I put the snowblower away, they freeze up again.

I originally thought that heating the cables would drive off the moisture and the problem would disappear, but that haasn't happened. I'm guessing that using the snowblower produces snow at the opening of the cables where they attached to the snow chute. The snow probably melts from engine heat and runs down inside the cables to the lowest point.

It seems that there is a design fault with this Sears product - and others with loops in the cables that are below the openings at either end. There should be some way of coping with this other than having to heat the cables each time.

A few come to mind:

- put effective seals on the ends of each cable

- put grease fittings on the cables so that they can be filled with non-freezing grease that would leave no space for melted snow water to intrude and freeze.

Reply to
kermitag

Motorcycle shops sell cable lubers that might work for you. They clamp over the cable and have A fitting on them that A plastic can tube fits into allowing aerosol lube to be injected between the cable and the housing. I have not used them on snowblower cables but have used them on snowmobiles and bikes and they work well.

H.R.

Reply to
harleyron

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