QA42A Snowthrower Refurbish

[rrschmitt]

Greg,

Make sure the universal joint drive shaft b/t your gear box and the chain drive input is properly assembled as well. I think the joints are suppose to be offset 90-degrees or bad things happen. Not that it may have caused the broken teeth on your gear but just something to check and verify it's assembled correctly.

 

[kmcconaughey]

Greg,

Make sure the universal joint drive shaft b/t your gear box and the chain drive input is properly assembled as well. I think the joints are suppose to be offset 90-degrees or bad things happen. Not that it may have caused the broken teeth on your gear but just something to check and verify it's assembled correctly.

Ron, good point. It's called "indexing" and the u-joints on the end of the shaft should be in the same orientation. Here's a photo from the manual that shows how they should be aligned.

 

[glippert]

Ron & Kraig, thanks for that reminder and photo.

Hey, Digger - I ordered parts at 3:00 this afternoon, and they're not here yet. What's the problem?

 

[nqueensland]

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.

View attachment 136700View attachment 136701View attachment 136702

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!

Ouch! Think that happened when you rammed into the hard drift? What lube did you have in the gearbox?

 

[digger]

Ron & Kraig, thanks for that reminder and photo.

Hey, Digger - I ordered parts at 3:00 this afternoon, and they're not here yet. What's the problem?

Uh-HUH! Spee-dee picked up at 2:30. Thanks for the order too!

 

[glippert]

Lots of grease. Everything was well coated. I don't know how it happened, but I was happy to see that Charlie had a good used one. I think it may have been from the wet, heavy snow we had over Thanksgiving. When we got home from Nebraska, plows had left big boulders of snow at the end of the driveway, and some chunks were frozen. They went through the thrower, but it was quite a big shock.

To quote a great American: " Stupid is as stupid does."

 

[rfunk]

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

One way to line up the holes in the shaft and sprocket when you can't see the situation well, is use a straight mechanic's pick. slide it through the first part of the broken pin in the sprocket, work the shaft around in the sprocket until the pick finds the hole in the center of the coil pin portion in the shaft, fasten (electrical tape works) the pick in the hole, then turn the sprocket and shaft around, and drive the whole works out from the back. You may have to use wear marks and/or measuring to make sure that the lengthwise location of the sprocket is right, as well as the radial position.
Rey

 

[rrschmitt]

Kraig,

Thanks for the clarification on the indexing. I couldn't remember which way was the correct orientation but I know its important.

 

[czuck]

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

I do that with mine and I do think it helps. Think about it. The engine is blowing all that hot air right on the discharge chute of the thrower, why wouldn't it cause a problem. I use the graphite paint too.

 

[kmcconaughey]

With the Quiet Line series the exhaust exits out the grill and can blow the hot exhaust right onto the discharge chute. IH offered a deflector for the exhaust to help reduce the heat on the discharge chute. Here's a photo of one from the archives, and a photo of one installed on Bryan McMeen's 1450. Should be easy to fabricate one of these or something similar.

 

[glippert]

I copied another forum member (can't remember who) and use a 1.5" sink drain wall pipe on my 782 to keep exhaust from blowing directly on th snow thrower. I remove it after snow season. I also use graphite paint as Kraig mentioned. Works for me.

 

[nqueensland]

I need to fab up something like this for my 1450.

 

[glippert]

Hard to believe a little piece of broken tooth like this can stop everything from working . I guess that's a sign of precision in the gearbox.

Probably a lot more pieces in the grease I removed.

It's a happy gearbox now.

 

[glippert]

Got the thrower back together and mounted back on the 782. I turned it on and, wow, I've never heard it run so quietly! It's not as pretty as yours, Nick, but I'm excited to run it for real, with snow.

Being prepared should keep the snow away for a while, right?

 

[rfunk]

. . .
Being prepared should keep the snow away for a while, right?

Yupp. Being prepared IS the best prevention. Not only is my thrower partly disassembled, my engine is apart for, at least, new piston/rings (though am going to have the shop measure and machine as needed, am NOT going to do this twice), so had to take 2-1/2 hours behind my backup - single speed forwards/reverse, single stage, 1965 Eatons Techomaster. Should normally have taken 45 minutes with the 149 . . .

 

[nqueensland]

Got the thrower back together and mounted back on the 782. I turned it on and, wow, I've never heard it run so quietly! It's not as pretty as yours, Nick, but I'm excited to run it for real, with snow.

Being prepared should keep the snow away for a while, right?

Nice work getting it back together so quickly! My son burned the belt on mine Wednesday night. I originally used a 30" belt but it seemed a bit long, the adjuster was nearly bottomed out, so I bought a 29" belt and got that installed last night. Since it's snowed pretty much constantly at my place since last Sunday I was able to test it out for a while and it worked great. Have some piles to blow back tomorrow too.
I noticed that the 1450 was nearly out of gas already, amazing that I've already gone through a whole tank! That's more gas than had been run through it in 5 years.

 

[glippert]

My 1450 goes through the gas, too, but I use my 782 for snow chores.

I used to have trouble with my snow thrower belt loosening, until I took the advice of some forum members and wired it it place. No more problems.

(Guess I should have cleaned up my greasy mess...)

 

[elamott]

I have a question on the roll pin that is in the sprocket wheel on the drive shaft of the QA 42A snow blower. There are roll pins that are really a double walled pin and a tension pin that is a single walled pin. I always considered these to be shear pins but looking at the strength of the roll pin, I question if the roll pin is meant to break.
Any comments appreciated
Earl L

 

[digger]

I have a question on the roll pin that is in the sprocket wheel on the drive shaft of the QA 42A snow blower. There are roll pins that are really a double walled pin and a tension pin that is a single walled pin. I always considered these to be shear pins but looking at the strength of the roll pin, I question if the roll pin is meant to break.
Any comments appreciated
Earl L

It's supposed to be a spirol pin. No throwers after the BB36-CW-36 had any type of shear pin. So to answer your question, No, it's not supposed to act as a shear pin.