551 blower lift rod help
 

While blowing snow this morning, more like slush, I had a clog so I lifted the blower to clear the clog and my lift rod that goes from the lift arm to the blower turned into a U and knocked the side panel off the hood from the extra weight of the jam of slush and snow. I was able to get it off and heat it with a torch, and hammer bend it back relatively the way it was and I almost got finished and it bent again. Clearly it’s weakened now. I’m thinking I might have one made. Is it anything special metal wise? I seems hollow. It also seems like it should have some reinforcement at the factory bend. Because that’s where it kinked.

All the Lift Rods I ever seen have been 1/2" Round Solid Steel.

This is way bigger than 1/2”. It’s 1” thick. I doubt I bent 1” solid steel

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It "looks" like 1" tubing. I would agree, it looks weakened.

Think a push rod made from square stock or tubing would fare better than round myself

I bent mine yesterday too from trying to use it when the linkage was over-center. Lesson learned for the future. I hear it's a fairly common problem. The lift mechanism for these isn't the best, IMO. Be grateful it was that lift rod and not your rockshaft.

I just bent the tip of mine, so I'm thinking about machining a little "sleeve" to go around the tip and re-enforce it to see if I can keep it from bending there again.

They are still available from MTD. I don't think they would be too hard to make though.

If someone starts making a heavy duty one i might be interested in one as i see this happening to mine as well lol.

I made 2 of these yesterday for my plows. I welded nuts to either end of an appropriately sized length of conduit, took 1/2" × 8" "L" or anchor bolts, drilled them for cotter pins, tacked on washers, and added a spring assist for the 106.

There's slop in the threads. They're the weak point in the design, and if it fails it will be the thread in the nut. If someone with a lathe would drill and tap a couple inches of thread into either end of a heavy rod or appropriate sized tube, it would be quite beefy. Reverse threading one end would make adjustability that much easier.
We got 3/4 of an inch of snow last night and I plowed my whole block in 3rd gear without breaking anything.

weld a piece of angle iron onto the side of it to reinforce it

It looks like it works well for that application, but it's a whole different system. That rod lifts when it's in tension. The rod on a 450/451/551 lifts in compression.

My lift arm build,,,

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I never bent this lift rod!! :bigthink: and,, it is adjustable,, :biggrin2:

Again, different application. 450/451/551 lifts when the rod goes forward. It's pushing a noodle uphill vs. pulling it.

But that does look gucci.

Yea,, this rod, could hold the weight of an entire Cub Cadet garden tractor,, if you could balance the GT on the rod,,,

so, tension, compression, no concern the rod is built heavy enough,,, I guess the rod could double as a crow bar,,, :biggrin2:

I dunno. I don't think that design would do any better of a job than the stock lift rod on a 450/451/551.

For that long of a rod, it really should be in tension vs compression, IMO.

Nice work!
reminds me of the time I was dragging a heavy rigging chain @ work.
Boss asked, why are you dragging that chain?
I said, "it's plum too heavy to carry, and pushing it didn't work out well" :biggrin2:

:biggrin2: that’s awesome!

I like that idea. I might give it a try. I will have to straighten the rod out again which might further weaken the bar, but it’s worth a shot. And if it fails again I could always do that on the replacement. The factory bend did not withstand the weight of pushing when the blower was all jammed up with slushy wet snow. It was really my fault, but my plow tractor is out of commission and I had to get the driveway cleaned before the arctic freeze came in. That’s the first snow I’ve had trouble moving with the 551, but understandably so considering how wet the snow was.

Here’s what I did. I straightened the bar again, and I used the angle iron idea. I hope the bending and straightening twice didn’t weaken it too much.

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Can you use the helper spring for the 450-51 style I had one and helped get it past center