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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Attachment 98061

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.