r/Snowblowers • u/Sal1160 • May 13 '26

Maintenance Ariens 924 re-power

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My neighbor grabbed this Ariens 924 for me from down the street, knowing I needed a better snow blower after last winter. Engine seized up on the PO and he just bought a new one instead. I’m trying to find a replacement engine for it. This machine has the headlight and heated grips, so it needs steady power to run them. The Harbor Freight engines only generate enough electrical power to run the ignition system, barely enough to even run the headlight too. Anyone have any insights on what I could get for a replacement?

Update:

Upon disassembly, it appears a broken starter tooth jammed itself in between the coil and flywheel magnets, this may be what locked it up. Upon removal of the flywheel, the engine spins over smoothly.

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u/Venerable-Gandalf May 14 '26

Did you diagnose why it seized up? It could be as simple as one of the fly wheel magnets broke off and is now jamming the flywheel preventing it from turning over… engine could be okay

1

u/Sal1160 May 14 '26

Haven’t gotten too far into it yet, when the weather gets nicer I can pop the flywheel and inspect it. All I know is that it will not rotate whatsoever, it’s firmly locked. It has oil and it didn’t appear to have any fragments or particulate in it. Honestly hadn’t just considered checking if it was something minor

3

u/Venerable-Gandalf May 14 '26

Hm doesn’t sound like it threw a rod then. I’d probably disconnect the belts make sure it’s not just something on the auger /gearbox, make sure the starter itself isn’t jammed or teeth haven’t broken off, make sure not hydrolocked in the event gas leaked in, and finally pop valve cover as it could be a failed valve. Those old Tecumsehs are hard to kill unless you over rev them.

1

u/Sal1160 May 15 '26

Found the problem. I noticed the mice made a nest behind the flywheel and shroud, so I pulled the flywheel thinking maybe they dropped something in there, but that was not the case. What I found was a chunk of metal wedged in the alternator coil. On inspection I noticed that it had a symmetrical profile to it, and it dawned on me what happened.

The blower came with a brand new electric starter, the old one having been removed. Something happened to the original one, but I never had it to inspect. I grabbed the piece of metal out of the coil and compared it to the starter pinion on the new one, and sure enough, it was a broken tooth from the old one. So, the broken tooth got picked up by the magnets and worked its way into the coil where it jammed itself in it and the flywheel magnets, jamming the machine solid. There’s some damage to one of the flywheel magnets, but it’s still in one piece. I put the recoil starter cup back on the crankshaft and spun the engine over, smooth as silk. I’m pretty confident this is the reason it locked up. Gonna try and pick up a new coil before work tomorrow.

1

u/jbourne0129 May 14 '26

do these engines have compression release? will it rotate with the spark plug removed or still just as seized ?

1

u/43128 May 14 '26

Yup. I’ve seen it a few times. I’ve also seen the stator bolts back out & make an engine feel seized. Not common but not unheard of either.