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

I spent a few hours today getting my snowblower put away for the summer. When I pulled the bottom plate off to grease the chains, etc. I found bits of greasy black stuff -- seems to be rubber. And the pattern with which they were stuck to the casing seemed to indicate they came from the friction disc. Is this normal? Is it bad? If so, what caused it? I went ahead and cleaned the friction plate off with a microfiber sponge -- no soap, no grease, nothing -- just a wet sponge.

Interesting -- I have Simp 1524 (Signature Pro Series). I previously posted a thread here where I asked why the manuals for the Signature Pro series said NOT to shift on the fly -- particularly considering that it is promoted as a feature of their Large Frame series. No one had much of an answer. Now that you mention it, I did shift on the fly more this season than last. Typically, I'll stop to shift to a slower speed, but if I'm shifting up, I'll just let the lever drop to the appropriate gear.

This is normal for a friction disk driven machine. Nothing to worry about. Likely not from shifting on the fly. Keep your traction drive adjusted to the setup and maintenance schedule to make sure your disk wears at an acceptable rate. The only rule to really worry about is not to shift from forward to reverse on the fly (or vice versa) or your friction disk may delaminate from the steel core or chunk out.