Auger repair
 

well now that the festivities are over, i was able to get back to work on the snowblower. the auger blades were a bit mangled and the bearings pretty much shot. once i replaced the bearings i thought everything was going to go smoothly. trying to determine the true pitch and angle by eye is as good as i can get it, and in doing so i found that the end of the auger with the sprocket was bent. so i thought.
the new set of bearings i bought came with a collar. similar to the one found on the front pto. it seems that when the collar is locked down and tightened to the shaft, it causes the bearing to ride imbalanced on the auger shaft, causing a real bad vibration. i've tried switching bearings from the other end and get the same results. if the collar is left off it's locked position though, the shaft spins true with the bearing and no vibration. why doesn't this happen on the engine shaft and pto? same principal applies to both, which is to lock down the bearing to the shaft so the auger does not slide, keeping the sprocket/chain in line. am i correct? i would like to hear what the rest of you think about this, even if you're not sure. any ideas count.
here are a few pics of the auger during repair. i will finish the one end that's broken off, once i figure out this bearing issue.

looks better than mine.

Your rotor (auger) needs more attention than mine did. Looking forward to your pictures of the repairs. On the bearings mine did not have the locking collar. They had set screws holding the bearing to the shaft. Do you think that yours may have bee replaced at some point? Sounds strange that the collar slight rotation would make that much difference?? I would think that the piece of missing rotor might cause much more imbalance?? I have never spun one of these up yet. I just make them look better:)
Regards,
Chris

Nice looking work with the hammer and dollie Rick. I think Chris is on to something in that the vibration is the auger being out of balance.
Alan

it appears that the shaft is roughly .020" smaller than the inside dimension of the bearing. and the collar snugs it down to one side of the shaft. i'm not sure that this bearing is correct. it's not the same as the one i took out. i will give the dealer a call to confirm part #'s, or see if i can find the original bearing that belongs in there.

Ricks,
I think you found the problem! I would think that you should have only about .002 inch clearance. Like a nice sliding slip fit, on the shaft. Hope you find the right bearings.
I ordered mine from KAMAN, but seemed pricy and were not the same style. But will work OK.
Regards,
Chris

auger repair
 

for those of you who thought that the missing blade may have been the culprit, i'm continuing on the repair. at first i thought this was going to be hard to conform to the rest of the cup in the blade, but the hammer and puck proved to work just fine once the new piece was tacked in place. i'm going to put j.b. weld on to fill any voids, smooth out and prime. then i will try the bearing again. the part # on the actual bearing is SA205-16 made in china. does this look familiar to you guys? should these replacements be made in the U.S.? i put them on another 1" shaft and found the fit to be much more snug than on the auger shaft. the wobble is still there though. something just isn't right about the way this collar snugs down on the bearing. also, if you look up the auger on the parts look-up site, you'll see that the collar is mounted on the outside of the bearing. i tried this setup and the collar has only the very end of the auger shaft to screw down on. it doesn't seem to be a logical place to mount the collar. i'm in need of some input from the cub guru's. the ones at napa are clueless as to what i'm talking about.

Rick,
You are right in thinking it should be a close fit. How much gap did you say you have?
Alan

0.020" would be WAY out of tolerance for even a cheap Chinese bearing. Are you sure the shaft it mounts on is not worn? You said you put it on another shaft and it was tighter, so since the same bearing fits differently on two different shafts, they must not be the same diameter.

rick,
I got the new bearings from KAMAN. Took in the old bearings and the guy says snowthrower! I agree with Matt. Get a pair of digital calipers and measure the shaft and bearings. Also my bearings did not have locking collars. They had two set screws through the bearing inner race contacting the shaft.
Your work on the rotor looks like its coming along. Try to weld as much as possible to get the strength. Hammer and smooth to final shape.
Regards,
Chris