Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

Hello, all.

Last night I was able to finally use a snowblower I was given.  Im sorry but I dont know the model number off hand, but the stickers say its a Toro 421 2 stage snowblower.  I dont know how many HP.  It has 3 forward speeds and one reverse.  It certainly isnt new.  Carb was rebuilt a week ago (at a shop) and now the engine runs great.

The machine runs great, but last night we got around 7 inches of powdery snow.  I have a long driveway and about halfway down the snowblower was plowing the snow ahead of it rather than throwing it.  There was some snow being blown, but not at the velocity it had at the beginning of the run.  It was similar to how water will come out of an end of hose at full bore, then taper off as you closed the valve; snow was moving, but obviously I was moving forward faster than the machine could clear the snow ahead of it.  I was in the slowest forward gear.

I dont have a lot of experience with 2 stage blowers, but I thought they were pretty good at removing a lot of snow.  However this seemed to take longer and more laborious for the machine than it should.  I would move forward around 10-15 feet till the snow was sort of unenthusiastically coming from the chute, then have to let the unit catch up (at which point the snow was being thrown as normal), then move forward again etc...  The engine never bogged down and seemed to run fine the entire time.

Any ideas on what to do?  I understand I can adjust the auger speed?  Could belts need tightening?  Could it be as simple as tightening the rod that goes from the trigger to the whateveritis that its connected to?  (theres a rod that has a clevis at the end; the clevis can be moved up and down the rod and I assume increase or decrease travel of the thing its connected to, which is the activation for the auger/impeller device).

Although it doesnt appear as such, Im confident I can fix this myself if given some advice.  Especially since the blower repair place wants the unit for more than a week and we are supposed to have more snow in that time period.  Thanks in advance!!!

Jason

bmwe0692 wrote:
While actually using the machine, the easiest way to check to see if your auger shear pins are intact is to run the blower up against a deeper snowbank and then back off without releasing the auger drive handle. If you see one set of clean arcs cut into the snow, and a ragged mass of loose snow on the other side, then one pin is sheared. If neither side shows clean cuts, then either both pins are gone or there is a drive issue.

I sheared a pin last week and was wondering what was going on, then realized the right auger wasn't rotating under load.

John Davies

Thanks for all the responses.  Im pretty sure I have it solved, and heres what I did:

Went into the belts (with engine off and spark plug unplugged :D ) and saw that when the auger trigger was depressed, the belt was still looser than the tranny belt.  I used the scientific push on the belts with my fingers and compare test for this.

I tightened up the clevis pin on the rod that links the trigger with the body of the blower till the belt had a tad of slack in it when the trigger is not depressed and tight when I did pull the trigger.

Being as we had no real good snow to test on, I took it out in the street and used the end of driveway plowed snow pile  that was there as a test.  Being that that stuff is heavy, icy, wet, and deep (ranged from say 8" - 5") I figured its as good a test as Im gonna get till the next significant snowfall.

Results were more like I thought.  That blower, although only 4 hp, ate the garbage up and blew it no problem without bogging in the lowest gear.  I then tried it in the fastest gear, and found that while the engine did bog down a bit, it still went right through it without the blowing stuff lagging behind.

Im actually pleased with the engine bogging because it at least proves that before when the engine didnt bog but the snow didnt blow, its most likely the belt was slipping and the engine didnt have anything to work against.  Now that the engine bogged it means the motor is still trying to turn the belt and auger even though the snow is too heavy for that speed.

Next heavy snow will be the final test, but I do think its fixed.  I also think Ill get a new belt asap and change it, but for now, I think Im good.

Thanks for all your help, I really appreciate it!

Jason

BTW, jason u can probaly dowload a manual for this from  toro.com.