How do I remove the impeller assembly on my Craftsman Chipper?

The engine shaft is tapered (no puller available for this) you have to break the impeller loose from the shaft. Remove the bolt and washer holding the impeller on the motor shaft. Start the bolt back in the hole. Run it in until the head is only 1/8 inch away from the impeller. Place a large screw driver or pry bar between the impeller and the rear of the chipper, and pry hard on one side. Hit the head of the bolt firmly with a good sized hammer. The shock will break the impeller loose and it will come off.

If the impeller does not loosen up with a couple of whacks with the hammer use a quality penetrating oil and allow it to sit for at least half an hour. If the impeller does not loosen after that, do not continue banging on it, you could damage the shaft or the engine. I highly recommend calling a service professional to diagnose and repair your chipper.

I was unable to find an alternate source for parts that were any cheaper than what you have found.

If you require further assistance please resubmit your question with more details. I will be looking forward to helping you again in the near future.

I have the chipper model 247.797850. Does this instruction apply to that model also?

Thanks,

Bill

I have a 247.775870 that I'm trying to remove the impeller assembly and have tried the prying, and banging and WD40 and none have worked. I read on another help site that you can screw in a larger bolt (7/16 - the top of the hole is threaded) until it bottoms out and then by continuing to screw it further would drive the impeller off the shaft. Is this something you would recommend?

I have been working on this issue for over a month, using penetrating oil and rapping on the screw head once a week or so. Yesterday I went back to it, and the impeller started moving when I pried and hammered. It did not just pop off. When I had backed the screw out several times to preserve the 1/8 inch gap, It was barely engaging the threads in the shaft, so I started hammering the engine side of the impeller through the space where the chipper blades were before removing them. That allowed me to finish removing the impeller. A longer screw would have allowed me to continue using it to complete the job.

Looks like time and patience pay off.

Bill

To clarify my post above: I hammered through the opening where the chipper chute was removed, against the backside of the impeller, rotating the impeller as I hammered.

Bill

Bill, finally got back to mine ( I was interrupted by the birth of my first grandson). Tried the hammering from the back side and it came right off. I don't know if Sears would recommend this procedure but it worked great. Thanks!!

Did it just like you said Landell. Thanks, I was done in minutes.

Thanks for the thread. My impeller was stuck so I (1) sprayed WD40, (2) banged the heck out of the shaft - when I banged the 3/4 inserted bolt it started to flatten so I tried hitting other parts, (3) heated it with a heat gun, (4) used 2 pry bars with lots of force. Nothing doing. Still stuck.

What finally worked for me was putting tension on the starter cord (spark plug unplugged) and hitting the impeller in the opposite direction that it would normally spin with a hammer. This loosened it and it came right off. Caution: be careful not to break the starting mechanism - the pull cords are not designed to take a lot of force.

Hitting it with a hammer and prying with a crow bar is not the way to do this. You really want to watch this video and make the simple tool that he shows.
youtube.com/watch?v=3-l00TLJK6s&feature=youtu.be
I bought a 7/16-20 1.5" cap screw (grade 5 so it is easy to drill) SKU 226737 and a nut at Home Depot in the specialty fasteners drawers. I also purchased a length of 1/4" steel rod. I used my drill press and a 1/4" bit to drill out approximately 1" of the inside of the cap screw. To hold the cap screw in position, I drilled a 7/16" hole in a 2X4 and counterbored one side to countersink hex head of the cap screw and allow enough thread to be accessible on the top side. I tightened the nut to hold the cap screw securely to the 2X4 and clamped it onto the drill press. I counterpunched the center face of the cap screw so the drill bit would not wander. (It wasn't perfectly in the center but that didn't matter much. I cut the 1/4" steel rod to length so that the overall length of the cap screw thread plus the rod was 3". The depth from the outside of the 7/16 threads to the bottom of the 3/8 threads on my chipper is 2.5" so the 7/16 threads were fully engaged with the cap screw threads when the steel rod bottomed out. (This is important as it distributes the force across all the individual 7/16 threads and avoids stripping them.) I cleaned up the burrs on the rod and inserted it into the hole I drilled in the cap screw. It was a bit loose so I put a small piece of electrical tape around the rod and that made it secure enough so it would not drop off inside the bolt hole. Then I followed the same procedure as the video showed and the impeller literally slid off. I had sprayed some WD40 into the impeller bolt hole the night before and I think that helped. Good luck.