Probably one of the attachments for lawn and garden tractors that takes the most abuse is the snow blower. Either single stage snow thrower or two stage blower. They all take abuse from driveway cracks, rocks, unseen objects, and the like.
Last Spring (Spring 2019), I noticed the 60 Heavy Duty blower for my 1445 had a few issues. The blower developed a bad vibration and gear oil was leaking out of the auger gear case. Two stage snow blowers will often times have two gear cases. One gear case is the input case that accepts the power from the tractor. This gear case will appropriately speed up or slow down the input RPM's for the rest of the blower and power the impeller that will throw the snow out of the chute. The second gear case is to change the direction and speed to the augers that move snow towards the impeller. The augers can turn much slower than the impeller.
Most of the vibration turned out to be a worn yoke on the drive shaft. I covered this repair a few months ago when I learned how not to change a universal joint with a press! (live and learn right)
In the last couple days I have tackled the front case for the augers. Gear oil was leaking out of the left cover seal. I am pretty sure the issue was caused by some bird netting from our strawberry bed that wrapped around the blower shaft. Follow along in a three part series where I change the seals and ultimately the bearings of the blower. Parts 1 and 2 have been released and Part 3 will be available on Tuesday (12/3) morning.
Part One: