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Area51 - Mike's Misc Projects 2024:
Quick repair on my Honda Snowblower, I cracked a shear pin in the right side wheel that drives the track. Most likely worn from years of service, it was quickly replaced with a new one I had in stock.
Project 6x6 ready for winter having reinstalled tracks, canopy and windshield.
Noticed my headlights were blinking while driving on rough terrain. I took apart the old school light switch, polished the electrical contacts, reassembled and is now working good as new! I love working on old school repairable parts like this.
At the height of our Valentines Day Blizzard one of the boys got a hold of me to look at his recently purchased 2nd hand Honda Snowblower which lost drive to the tracks. I stopped by and diagnosed a failed crawler drive gearbox. I picked up the machine and a rebuild kit from Honda One and got to work.
For more information, check out my How to: Rebuild Honda Snowblower Track Drive Gearbox article.
The problem became clearly obvious when I got the unit disassembled, a stripped out centre gear. I was surprised to see that someone had previously been into this gearbox to make a repair. There were some new bearings present and this Red-n-Tacky grease is not OEM.
Unfortunately, the previous repair person did not install the full Honda One repair kit, rather just bits and pieces. Leaving "known to fail" old parts known in the gearbox led to this inevitable failure and subsequent 2nd repair.
Now that I've been entrusted with the repair, I will be installing all the parts supplied in the kit from Honda One for a proper long lasting repair.
Cleanliness is very important, heavy debris was washed in the parts washer, and everything was given a final rinse with brake parts cleaner.
Blind hole bearing puller kit came in clutch once again.
It's the proper and easiest way to remove the centre bearings on these cases.
Crawler bracket bearing replacement - these are included in the Honda one kit, as well as the bearing on the left side frame that the drive axle passes through.
Almost fully back together and finished just ahead of the next big snowstorm!
Two years ago I built a custom alarm system and off grid power supply for one of my good buddy's construction trailer. The system worked great however someone stole the entire trailer back in December. The alarm was designed to detect unauthorized entry and not taking the whole unit. Judging by the damage it worked quite well as someone was in full panic mode trying to quiet down the alarm system!
I removed all of the electronics & wiring from the old box salvaging what I could.
I planned to use the old box as a template for drilling holes in the new one, but the replacement box had a few updates and was about an inch shorter overall. The location of some items had to be adjusted accordingly.
First up was cutting my custom fabricated mounting brackets off the old box and welding them in place on the new one. These leg extensions ensure that the box can be bolted directly to the frame of the trailer and not just screwed to the wooden floor.
All in all it was a very tedious process to rebuild the system and get it installed back into the jobsite trailer, but I was very glad to be trusted with such an important and interesting project once again!
On March 8th we were hit once again with another major snowstorm which dumped 80cm+ here on the Avalon. Unfortunately Doug's Snowblower decided to throw a drive belt during cleanup. I ran out to Paradise with my machine, got his driveway cleared, popped the damaged belt back on, and loaded it in the truck to make a proper repair.
Even though it was still quiet, I suspected the impeller bearing would be in hard shape as its been about 5 years since I last replaced it.
Sure enough it was rusty & rough, so a fresh bearing was packed with quality grease and installed.
The belts on this machine were only 3-4 years old, when they fail early its usually a sign of worn bushings on the pivot of the tensioner arm. This is the arm that engages when you push down on the control levers to engage the belts, one for drive, and the other for the augers.
When the bushings go bad the tensioner wheel can cock sideways a little, enough to throw the belt off the drive pulleys.
There are four bushings total, two for the drive and two for the auger tensioners. I finished up the job with two fresh belts and got the unit reassembled.
In April I discovered the machine would not start when I went to move it in/out of the garage. With fingers crossed that it was not a bad starter, I diagnosed it to be a failed started solenoid which was easy to replace. I sourced a replacement at Canadian Tire, modified the mounting bracket, installed it and now the Argo starts perfectly.
By mid April it was time to get my trusty 2500HD back into summer mode after a long hard winter. First up was swapping winter tires & rims back to my summer 20" OEM aluminum rims. I'm very pleased with how the "new to me" 285/70/17 Duratracks worked over the winter. Traction was great, they wore well and looked waaaay better than the my old 265/70/17 winters as they are much taller and filled out the wheel well.
With tires swapped I gave the truck a thorough exterior cleaning, focusing on the areas where my cocoon of winter undercoating had leached out onto the body panels. I don't wash the truck in winter, I prefer to let the undercoating do its thing and provide all-important protection against rust on the frame and bodywork.
Cheers, MIKE
Copyright © 2011 Michael Smith
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