QA42A Snowthrower Refurbish

[nqueensland]

My son and I have been working on a QA42A snow thrower for our 1450 over the past few months. I was looking for a project for my son to be able to use the torch, welder, paint gun, and grinders to start to build these skills.
I found the perfect snow thrower through the Wanted section of this forum- thanks again Kraig! I took a few pictures along the way. This was a fun little project we could work on when time allowed.
We installed new bearings, chain, cutting edge, belt, and 4” speed-up pulley. We added skis to the bottom of the skid shoes, repacked the gearbox and painted the interior of the thrower (I don’t like painting in my shop so we didn’t paint the outside, can do that next summer).
We got to try it out on Friday night and it worked great! Thanks to Kraig, Charlie, and Aaron for supplying the unit and high quality parts to make this possible!

 

[dschwandt]

ALRIIGHT!!!
Looking good there!
For what they are and considering the age of this equipment they do a great job for a single stage if the snow is not too wet like it was here yesterday;

 

[glippert]

Nick - That looks great. Good job, too, getting your son involved. Sharing your knowledge and increasing his skills, while bonding. And a great-looking, fully operational snow thrower, to boot.

I broke two coiled pins on my old QA42A yesterday. Not sure why - the snow wasn't wet any heavy, and was really throwing nicely. It's the pin that holds the small chain drive sprocket on the transfer shaft. I was working it pretty hard, moving back a good sized drift at the end of my driveway, that was quite a bit higher than the mouth of the thrower. There weren't any ice chunks, but the snow was packed pretty hard. Fortunately, I bought a 10-pack of the pins from McMaster Carr last year.

Does anyone know if there are any incorrect adjustments that would cause the pin to break? Has anyone ever had any luck changing that pin without removing the sprocket & shaft? Just wondering...

 

[nqueensland]

ALRIIGHT!!!
Looking good there!
For what they are and considering the age of this equipment they do a great job for a single stage if the snow is not too wet like it was here yesterday;

Thanks Dave. I hadn’t used one of these throwers for probably 15 years and was surprised at how well it worked. Had about 5” of light fluffy snow, just right to test it out.

 

[nqueensland]

Nick - That looks great. Good job, too, getting your son involved. Sharing your knowledge and increasing his skills, while bonding. And a great-looking, fully operational snow thrower, to boot.

I broke two coiled pins on my old QA42A yesterday. Not sure why - the snow wasn't wet any heavy, and was really throwing nicely. It's the pin that holds the small chain drive sprocket on the transfer shaft. I was working it pretty hard, moving back a good sized drift at the end of my driveway, that was quite a bit higher than the mouth of the thrower. There weren't any ice chunks, but the snow was packed pretty hard. Fortunately, I bought a 10-pack of the pins from McMaster Carr last year.

Does anyone know if there are any incorrect adjustments that would cause the pin to break? Has anyone ever had any luck changing that pin without removing the sprocket & shaft? Just wondering...

Thanks Greg. I’m lucky my son’s interested in mechanical things. He’s one of the few kids I know that would rather be out in the shop working on iron than sitting in front of a screen. Sorry to hear about the issue with your QA42A. That’ll be a messy job! I would think the belt would slip before it would shear those pins!

 

[digger]

My son and I have been working on a QA42A snow thrower for our 1450 over the past few months. I was looking for a project for my son to be able to use the torch, welder, paint gun, and grinders to start to build these skills.
I found the perfect snow thrower through the Wanted section of this forum- thanks again Kraig! I took a few pictures along the way. This was a fun little project we could work on when time allowed.
We installed new bearings, chain, cutting edge, belt, and 4” speed-up pulley. We added skis to the bottom of the skid shoes, repacked the gearbox and painted the interior of the thrower (I don’t like painting in my shop so we didn’t paint the outside, can do that next summer).
We got to try it out on Friday night and it worked great! Thanks to Kraig, Charlie, and Aaron for supplying the unit and high quality parts to make this possible!

Glad to see that man! You raised him right! Kinda like your dad did with you.

 

[kmcconaughey]

Nick, you and your son did a great refurbish job on the QA42A! That sure cleaned up nice.

 

[lrkane]

Years ago on a cub forum someone suggested that placing a barrier on the front grille to keep engine heat from warming the snowthrower helps the snow to not stick helps...and it does. Cardboard is even ok. Also waxing the inside if the unit including the vanes helps

 

[kmcconaughey]

Here's what works for me to prevent wet snow from sticking.

Graphite Paint

 

[nqueensland]

Glad to see that man! You raised him right! Kinda like your dad did with you.

Yep, reminded me of working with my dad when I was a kid. Except we had a gravel floor and no heat .

 

[nqueensland]

Nick, you and your son did a great refurbish job on the QA42A! That sure cleaned up nice. View attachment 136674

Thanks Kraig. Was a perfect project for us. Took longer than I expected. I remember the days when I would have had that all done in one weekend, now it takes me 2 months to get this done!

 

[elamott]

Coiled pins.
glippert:
I just had the same misfortune of breaking the coil pin on the small chain drive sprocket on the transfer shaft. I fought with it for a while then I took a small drill bit to try to align the pin. I think that I got lucky in that the broken part of the pin got stuck on the drill bit and came out with the bit. I then could see the shaft and was able, with a smaller punch, drive out the remaining parts of the pin.
Does anyone have a procedure that they use to align the holds to drive out old pin.
I am starting to think about changing old ones before they break.
Any comments greatly appreciated
elamott

 

[glippert]

Earl - I ended up removing the whole bracket assembly and was able to slide the shaft out. Then a pin punch took care of the 3 pieces of the pin.

Today I went to change the pin again and discovered it wasn't broken. Instead, the key that holds the other end of the transfer shaft to the u-joint was broken/shattered.

Note to self: Don't engage Blunier Ramming Speed with a snowthrower!

 

[glippert]

I have a question about the QA-42A Snowthrower (specifically, the transfer shaft between the drive shaft u-joint and the small (chain drive) sprocket). The sprocket is held on with a coil pin, and a 3/16" key connects the u-joint to the shaft. But, there's a hole in the end of the keyway, that extends inside the yoke of the u-joint. Is there supposed to be a coil pin in there, or just a cotter pin? Mine had a cotter pin, but the previous owner did a lot of mods to the thrower which cause me to question it.

 

[sblunier]

Ha ha.....Blunier Ramming Speed.....an oldie, but a goodie!

 

[dschwandt]

Parts lookup says cotter pin

read:ARI Part Stream

 

[nqueensland]

I have a question about the QA-42A Snowthrower (specifically, the transfer shaft between the drive shaft u-joint and the small (chain drive) sprocket). The sprocket is held on with a coil pin, and a 3/16" key connects the u-joint to the shaft. But, there's a hole in the end of the keyway, that extends inside the yoke of the u-joint. Is there supposed to be a coil pin in there, or just a cotter pin? Mine had a cotter pin, but the previous owner did a lot of mods to the thrower which cause me to question it.

Mine has a cotter pin in this hole also. I thought it was strange too and almost replaced it with a coil pin.

 

[glippert]

Parts lookup says cotter pin

read:ARI Part Stream

Thanks Dave, I checked the parts lookup a couple of times and didn't see it. Sadly, the eyes weren't the first thing to go!

 

[dschwandt]

It's not pictured but mentioned in the parts listing.

 

[glippert]

I got my thrower all back together and discovered it was binding in or near the 90 degree gearbox. Imagine my surprise when I removed the gearbox, opened it and cleaned out all the grease, only to discover that I'm the proud owner of a QA-42A-"R" snow thrower. The "R" stands for Rare, and it isn't included on the label, but is easily recognizable by the very rare 23-1/2 tooth large bevel pinion gear, instead of the much more common 30 tooth version.

I decided to convert it to a standard QA-42A and ordered a good looking used 30 tooth gear. Fortunately, CC Specialties ships extremely quickly and we have warm weather (in the 30's) forecast the rest of the week. Thanks, Charlie!