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

After the last snowfall, when I was finishing up, my snowblower stopped abruptly

and now it feels like it's locked up. When I push the electric start it make a terrible sound

and when I tried to pull start it,  it won't even budge.

Does anyone know what the problem could be? and if so, how I can fix it?

Thanks, Bob

Two posibilities:

1. If by finishing up you mean the engine was running, made a funny sound and then stopped then you may have blown the engine. This is normally caused by low oil level or in the case of 2 stroke engine not mixing oil in with the gas.
2. If the blower was sitting for a while with a bunch of slush on it and it got cold then maybe something is frozen and you just need to melt it.

I hope its number 2. If its number 1 then you either have to replace the blown part of the engine  sometimes called getting a short block or replace the engine. If you do it yourself its a learning experience. If you have a shop do it its a spending experience.

More info can be found in this thread.

Thanks for the info. I hope you're right and it's #2 also!

I just remembered that another person reported a similar problem. For them it turned out that the starter motor was loose and had jammed up the engine. When they took off the starter they were able to turn over the engine by hand and get it going. They didn't mention why the starter was loose.

Well, here's what fixed it......for now anyway.

Our maintenance man from work suggested to take off the cover and rotate the flywheel with a screwdriver. That way anything jamming it up should drop. I did that, and it's running again. I hope it wasn't anything too important that will end up giving out right away. Oh well we'll see.

Thanks for your input!

~Bob