a different way of cranking chute on snow blower?

D

dodge trucker

Tractorologist
Senior Member
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I have seen similar mods done in the past, in "other GT forums". Search isn't helping me right now, so I'll ask here.
On my Ariens 2 stage snow blower it has a goofy cable and drum setup on it to rotate the chute. I have found myself with a few power window motors out of various cars/ trucks, where I have had to replace the window regulators on, you can thank today's "lightening"/ "cheapening" designs among carmakers/ when available, the price difference between getting a new window regulator with vs w/o a new motor isn't enough to "not" replace the motor with the regulator... so I have "spare parts".

Has anyone here ever modded a snow blower chute, by adding an electric motor to rotate the chute? how'd you do it? I remember one guy on the other site that did something similar for the other part of the chute, the top flapper part of the chute and he used an old school scissor style regulator (from what, IDK) to change the angle of the top part of the chute. I RARELY find myself having to mess with that, though I am always rotating the chute. but his design ("massey driver") reminds me of those Nazi military helmets with the spike/ spear sticking out the top..... it looked like it could be dangerous how he had it sticking out there in the open... pinch point waiting to happen...… which is something that I want to avoid if I motorize this chute. Ideally I'd like to try and make it look like it came that way from the factory..... might be too much to ask.
 
Thanks for sharing now you’ve got my wheels turning. Nice job and a great job by your helper.
 
All of the ones I've seen, were like Alan's; put the motor in place of the crank. The secret to make it look factory is to do a neat job with quality materials
 
I was thinking about a different chute with the ring gear of sorts built in even if it was from a different brand of blower and build a bracket for the power window motor to mount to so that it can directly mesh with the ring gear.
 
Hmm, I think our walk behind uses a ring gear. I wonder how close they are in size.
 
The only problem with ring gear and a mesh is ice build up.
The Wheel Horse uses a ring gear and I usually have to stop mid way and clean it off 3 or 4 times per winter.

Not the end of the world, but you’ll want to build in a slip mechanism or at least a light shear pin, just in case.
 
Toomanytoys84 said:
How are you limiting the rotation? Or will it just spin 360 degrees?
Click to expand...
the older vehicles with the scissor lift style window regulators had the gear built into one of the scissor "blades" and were only 90*-120* wide with the end tooth being taller so it wouldn't run off the track. I think I have seen some with nearly a 180* "rack". I can put a bolt in anywhere along the rack and when it hits the outer motor housing that's my "stop".
No, not interested in blowing snow back onto myself, sorry. the wind often does that plenty, while running this machine, without needing to point the chute my way..... thanks but no thanks.
 
my thoughts were that while it would be doubtful to get lucky to find a random snow blower chute to fit the outlet on my housing and have a gear tooth pitch to exactly match up with some random power window motor; and being that these machines were not designed to have power chute control, that the car parts lookup won't tell me "also fits some snow blower" nor will any snow blower manual say to use a power window motor spec'd for such and such car.... and I want to eliminate the silly cable setup as I have on there now (factory Ariens setup, have seen older Simplicitys and other snow blowers with similar cable setups to spin the chute)
so my thought was to scout the junkyard and look at some various car doors and see what might work, and cut the actual ring gear portion off about an inch behind the gear teeth and match the contour of the base of the chute, drill a few holes and bolt it to the base of the chute by way of the flange that holds the retainer clips that hold the chute to the blower.

I have a side job in the garage right now, a (yuck) F150 for (among other repairs) 2 window regulators (this truck has the cable design ones in it so the regulators would be useless but the PW motor might be usable for this project.... might. the new regulators come with new PW motors, though the old motors still work fine.... the pulleys and cable system is what breaks. and I have to replace the front struts (struts on a pickup? how STUPID) which got me to thinking, when working on some of the older GM cars when I used to have to replace the top mounts along with struts at work, some of those strut bearings were pretty big in diameter... I wonder if there is something similar that could go between the flange on the chute and the flange on the blower??? Big Torrington bearing maybe? IDK if they make a Torrington style bearing in that large a diameter....
 
I'm tryin g to visualize the 'ring gear'. How about a large pedal sprocket from a bike? Or are you trying to create something like on a walk behind blower where there are teeth on the chute and a heavy spiral wire 'gear' that meshes with it?
 
Lily'sDad said:
I'm tryin g to visualize the 'ring gear'. How about a large pedal sprocket from a bike? Or are you trying to create something like on a walk behind blower where there are teeth on the chute and a heavy spiral wire 'gear' that meshes with it?
Click to expand...
Kinda like your 2nd thought.
 
dodge trucker said:
the older vehicles with the scissor lift style window regulators had the gear built into one of the scissor "blades" and were only 90*-120* wide with the end tooth being taller so it wouldn't run off the track. I think I have seen some with nearly a 180* "rack". I can put a bolt in anywhere along the rack and when it hits the outer motor housing that's my "stop".
No, not interested in blowing snow back onto myself, sorry. the wind often does that plenty, while running this machine, without needing to point the chute my way..... thanks but no thanks.
Click to expand...

I was thinking that you could break your chute if you spun it too far. I was thinking along the lines of a micro switch to stop travel at each end of the arc.

Never messed with an electric window motor.
 
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