Snowblower engine troubles

[245dlc]

Yeah it'll be repairable I think when I was unloading the snowblower off my little utility trailer that one track caught on something causing the shear bolt to break. It's a very simple arrangement how it works the engine powers a belt and the torque is transferred through a straight axle I'll try to get a decent picture of it.

[245dlc]

Well I put the heaters on in the garage yesterday and we reassembled the engine and that went reasonably well, the previous owner didn't screw with that to much thankfully. The gasket kit cost me about $50.00 Cad I also had to get a new V-belt for the impeller and auger drive which was about $21.00 Cad. And today we took apart the track drive assembly and put a bolt in place of a shear bolt. The track drive system while being really simple was kind of a pain in the arse as we had to figure out the correct sequence of what goes where and when to put the track back on. We also very quickly discovered that the original owners had taken most of the machine apart at some point in time and must have had it sitting in bits and pieces in buckets or something as not all the nuts and bolts were original or fit properly where we found them. So my neighbour Mr. Joubert who is a retired John Deere ag mechanic brought over his collection of spare nuts and bolts and washers and I scratched together my fledgling collection and we slowly put it back together and started it up and cleared a swath around the house. And Jack the drive system works by putting tension on a V-belt which drives a wheel that has another rubber wheel that transfers torque and power ninety degrees through a straight axle. We had originally thought there was a gear box but it was even simpler than that. I tried to get some decent pictures but it wasn't easy as my hands were pretty filthy with the surprising amount of grease and oil in there. My propane heater sure helped get the garage warm quickly despite having no insulation on the garage doors (a future project) and the 30 amp plug that my brother put in last year was put into good use with an electric heater that my dad gave me. The floor was cold because the ground is frozen but we were pretty comfortable with just a sweater underneath our coveralls. I'm sure greatful for such a nice and patient neighbour.

[Stock]

Thanks Bert, never seen the inside of one of them ......................never saw a snowblower in the flesh

[jackpreacher]

Yeah, thanks for posting those Bert - it couldn't have been easy in those temperatures.....switching camera on......snapping....etc...

It looks surprisingly simple. I checked out valve spring compression tools yesterday in Halfords [UK based automotive chain] and they come in at around £50.00 GBD for a decent set...dunno what they'd cost over there.
Are you still thinking of re-engining the blower?



This may be of interest to you - I have a Honda GX140 powered Whacker like this:
WHACKER.jpg

It's engine became unreliable around 2 years ago - bought off Ebay for £90.00. So the GX140 - around 5/6 HP - is in total stripdown. I'll start reassembling it next week. Loads of power, when it works, with a horizontal crank. You can get them secondhand for around £75.00, give or take.........hey..maybe you can mount two on your blower...one for the drive...one for the blower

[245dlc]

I won't repower the snowblower if I don't have to it's running good now so I'll just leave it as it is. I'm not sure if I'd go with a Honda or not as a repower engine for a snowblower that's probably 20-25 years old. I have given thought to buying a BCS walk behind tractor in the past as they have quite a rugged design and most lawn and garden equipment on this side of the pond is belt driven and not built to take much abuse. Last spring I rented a Husqvarna brand rear tine rototiller to bust up the poorly graded lawn in my backyard. Despite the fact that we're only renting this place I was getting fed up with having such a $hitty lawn and decided the year before to hit it with roundup to kill the weeds and to regrade it. Well this rototiller was only around 5 or 6hp and had this reversible tine feature where the tines would rotate in the opposite direction of the drive tires. Well it did break up the sod fairly well but I still ended up having to push the thing with my body and at one point the belts did slip momentarily making a little smoke. I also found that wheels turned to fast for the speed it actually travelled while tilling and in some places doing a $hitty job of breaking up the lumps. Well with the BCS machines they come in a variety of sizes and have different engine choices depending on the model. The tiller can also be exchanged for a variety of different implements such as snowblowers, tillers, mowers of different kinds, plows and there isn't a single belt on the machine as torque and power is transferred by gears and shafts. However the only way I'd be able to afford such lovely kit is by making it work and earning it's keep. lol......still food for thought.

http://bcs-tillers.com/

[ianoz]

Looks like a big job for a little tiller .You did well geting all that done .

[245dlc]

Yeah sure was Ian, really nice topsoil though that varies from 6-18" deep, my neighbour Mr. Joubert told me that his cousin use to live here and built the house. Apparently he was a dragline operator and did work for the Provincial Government draining swamps and peatlands (now a no no these days). And I guess when he came home on the weekends he'd haul a load of dirt and or peat home and fill in the backyard so the wife could have a garden as had been kinda low and swampy and even had standing water during wet years. Well much of the dirt he hauled was naturally very sandy and at first when I was tilling it was hard to break through the sod but after busting it, it pulverized very nicely...it also had lots of little stones so as I raked it out and made it nice and level I was constantly picking out stones that I later recycled into my little backyard frog and dragonfly pond. It was really amazing how many dragonflies I had this past summer and at times up to three frogs living in it. Anyway getting back to snowblower talk here's a video Diane took of me trying it out in the front yard through a two or three foot deep snowdrift.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBLOb...ature=youtu.be

It worked very well and the track drive sure worked nice than any wheel drive ones I've used...a little tougher to steer but the traction was good.

[jackpreacher]

Result

[245dlc]

Got to try out the snowblower for real today and it works awesome and the track drive system works excellent even in sugar snow, something that I always found tricky for wheeled ones.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGo-1...ature=youtu.be

[B4D2USA]

I saw your videos on FB, it looks good. Congrats. We're supposed to get the storm that just came through your neck o the woods. We are also supposed to get some lake enhancement, so we might wind up with more than afoot of snow. It'll be the first big snow of the season for us. Everything else has been heavy wet snow that was more like shoveling a lake. Maybe I'll get a pic or two of the "new" Honda snow thrower.

[245dlc]

We don't get that heavy wet stuff very often usually at the beginning and end of the season but I know what it's like to move that stuff. Thankfully Bruce this storm hasn't been as nasty as the last two we've had the wind has been a lot less intense and it's no where near as cold and not expected to get all that cold either. I got the call from Minsky's to go run wheel loader in the city early tomorrow morning so I'm happy, the snow seems to be slowing down here so I'm going to go clear the driveway again so I can be sure that I can get out of the garage tomorrow morning with no fuss. Some places on this side of the line got up to 40 cm of snow I think we've gotten closer to 30 cm which is about a foot.

[B4D2USA]

Well, it's about done, but we managed a respectable 7 or 8 inches of snow out of this storm. I wasn't sure how much my "new" Honda snow blower would handle, so I went out twice. I feel that the more snow, the better considering it is a single stage blower. It's a 621, meaning it's rated at 6 HP. It starts immediately and other than a chute that doesn't seem to be as efficient, it still does a nice job. I was walking at a brisk pace as I used it tonight and it never bogged down.

[245dlc]

Awesome Bruce! I think that big storm from what it looked like on t.v. just kept circling over us so it might have spent most of it's energy over us and North Dakota. One town near us got about 2 1/2 feet of snow. The city got about 2 inches and some of the roads I was scraping just had slush and water.