185 blower upgrade

[Mike H]

Tried to get the 185 sneak threw till spring but it has other ideas
Ya I blew the PTO clutch pack again and going to mothball it till a later date.
sooooo the 185 is getting a pony motor installed this weekend.
the bad part is I have to do it out side.
the farm drive has 36''+ of snow in it and 10+ miles away from the current house.
using a 16 hp vanguard twin to power the blower at a 2-1 ratio.
hopefully this will work.
the two power units will not be tied together for now till the clutch pack is repaired.
so ground speed can be reduced to not over load the blower.
the parts are ordered and on their way.

Mike

[Greg Armstrong]

That's no fun. I have some items needing done on my 184 and have to work outside too... We have high temps in single digits right now and the wind is always blowing where I live so wind chills are -5 or below. Hard to work with thick gloves on! Hopefully you get the pony on and get the snow cleared. Good luck and stay warm!

[outdoors4evr]

Is your blower a McKee or Danco? Just curious. Got any pic's?

[Mike H]

Its a McGee 320
I am going to extend the drive line and install the motor in the back so it does not have to deal with the snow dust from the blower
I did build a platform on the back so that part is done ,, just need to add motor mounts so the tention can be set for the 5L pair of belts

Mike

pics comming later

[Mike H]

Wow ,,got a look at the clutch pack
tore up the cup,,the ears on the clutch bands
metal grindings every were
going to pull the 2 belts at the back of the engine and mothball it till warm weather

Mike

pictures later

[SONNY]

New cups are $400. the last I priced them a few years ago!! thanks; sonny

[BigBill]

Here’s a funny, on my int154 lobby #2 that I purchased non running but bought as a fixer upper. Someone rebuilt the engine. But it still had a knock in the engine so they thought. I found the the front twin vee belt pulley on the pto shaft had galled on the shaft. Being it’s right at the rear of the engine it had to sound like a rod knock.

The moral of the story is the old mechanics trick of using a socket extension held up to your ear and placing it at each cylinder on the engine would of told you it’s not in the engine. Or even pull one spark plus wire at a time the noise wouldn’t of increased. They pulled the pistons, they honed the cylinders, new rings and bearings.

On one of my cub cadet purchases it has a bad rod knock too, so I thought. The PO swore it had a replacement engine.(my buddy) checking it out the rear starter/generator bearing plate the bearing was worn out. The engine is very quiet now.

[Mike H]

well it works, just gota change the ratio to 4 to1
the blower is turning too fast at 2 to 1 and the auger is shaking the tractor at 1/3 throttle
with the C 60 at idle it clears just fine

Mike

[SONNY]

Nice job Mike!!! glad you got it going!! ---sonny

[BigBill]

The most important thing with a snowblower is the tractor ground speed. If it’s too fast the blower will choke up with snow.

[mastercraft]

Its a McGee 320
I am going to extend the drive line and install the motor in the back so it does not have to deal with the snow dust from the blower
I did build a platform on the back so that part is done ,, just need to add motor mounts so the tention can be set for the 5L pair of belts

Mike

pics comming later

I'd really like to see pics of this when you get them as I have a 320 as well and don't trust the clutch packs on my 184, have yet to have an issue but it'd really take stress of the motor to have an aux motor drive the blower.

[Mike H]

gota wait for it to warm up we are hovering around 0 right now

having a hard time of letting go of the wrenches at this temp[sticking to hands]

Mike

[outdoors4evr]

The 184 clutch pack can take a decent beating. I've had my freshly rebuilt 184 brought to a stall from wide open while using a snowthrower and at another time from the rototiller. The PTO clutch did not slip and the keyways did not break. In both cases, the load on the PTO was not a sudden change, but a gradually increasing load.
I do try to start PTO powered implements at a lower throttle setting so they can "spin up" with the increase of RPM's rather than slamming them into gear at a high RPM.

[mastercraft]

The 184 clutch pack can take a decent beating. I've had my freshly rebuilt 184 brought to a stall from wide open while using a snowthrower and at another time from the rototiller. The PTO clutch did not slip and the keyways did not break. In both cases, the load on the PTO was not a sudden change, but a gradually increasing load.
I do try to start PTO powered implements at a lower throttle setting so they can "spin up" with the increase of RPM's rather than slamming them into gear at a high RPM.

I'd mainly like to drive the blower with a separate motor so the tractor could use all it's 18 horses for just the tractor as the blower in deep snow puts a heavy load on the motor and it would take the load off the pto as well.....them clutch packs ain't cheap .

[outdoors4evr]

It is also nice not to have to run your tractor engine flat wide open in a blizzard of blowing snow.
That reverse gear with the creeper engaged is SUPER Slow!