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

Hello All,

I have a Troy 5524, and while out doing all the neighbors driveways, one decided not to take their paper up from the snow and I hit it.

The machine immediately stopped, I was able to restart it, and it drives fine, but the thrower handle as soon as you engage it, the machine dies.   The paper (and plastic is stuck under the black chute and it appears around a thing that spins (auger?   I've pulled away what I can, but when trying to get the chute off (4 screws I believe) the bottom 2 wont seem to come out, and the top 2 while off the plastic wont budge,  and it's not frozen on there. 

Any ideas how to get the paper off of the thing  (also tried scissors, but it only leaves the really hard to get to stuff)   I can't afford to have it repaired, and don't have a manual which might tell how to disassemble the cute and get to that area without nicking up my hands all over the blades.


I don't think I'm the only one who has ever ran over a paper, but maybe I am   lol. 
I tried to show a few different views.   

1st picture is a close up from the front view where all the paper and plastic is stuck to the top of the thing.
2nd picture is from the top of the chute down into the unit.
3rd picture is a further back view from the front.

Any advice (im a total novice with tools etc.  guess that's why I can't figure out why the screws are loose, but wont come off.

Thank you so much for any help you can offer.

I've never gotten a newspaper jambed in like that, but the last thing I would do is stick my hand in there. Plenty of people have lost fingers because of the tension/windup causing the parts to spin once they get unfrozen. Be careful.

I would boil a few buckets of water then pour the hot boiling water to the affected area and let the plastic become soft so you can pull it out and try to dissolve paper with hot water.  Please be careful so you don't burn yourself and cut your fingers/arm/hand as you try to free the plastic.  Wish you the best and hopefully happy ending.

First off REMOVE the spark plug!!! The motor might be storing up compression,when the paper comes loose with your hand in there,look out. As was mentioned use water to soften up the paper. Fashion a hook out of strong wire and work the softened paper out. Keep the paper wet and use the hook. Just a little space between the houseing and impeller will let you get bigger pieces out and free up the impeller.

Hope this helps
T.J.

Thanks for the replies,  I did previously pour very hot water (it wasn't boiling) into the chute and then onto the area from the front, but it only allowed me to get to a little bit.

Thanks Rat, now I don't want to mess with it at all  lol. 

You've already tried hot water, but do it again now that it has soaked for a while.  I hope you didn't leave it outside to freeze!!!  The next step is a big (long) knife. The thing in the back where the paper is jammed is the impeller. It spins counterclockwise and tosses the snow (fed to it by the two big augers) up into the chute. From the pics, that's where the jam is. Try to cut away the paper at the end of the impeller. If you can slice through most of it, the rest will fall off.  The "thrower handle" tightens the belts that spin the shaft the impeller is mounted on, because it can't spin, it dies. Don't worry about engine compression, you've already run the engine with the front disengaged. Just concentrate on slicing off the paper in front of the impeller (to the left of it) from the front. Once that's cleared the stuff behind it will fall off.  Also, you might be able to get a big pair of pliers down the chute and pull some of it out, it's hard to tell from the pics.

I once cleared a jam like this quickly and easily with a torch. But I was going to repaint it anyway   You don't want to do that.

You've already tried hot water, but do it again now that it has soaked for a while.  I hope you didn't leave it outside to freeze!!!  The next step is a big (long) knife. The thing in the back where the paper is jammed is the impeller. It spins counterclockwise and tosses the snow (fed to it by the two big augers) up into the chute. From the pics, that's where the jam is. Try to cut away the paper at the end of the impeller. If you can slice through most of it, the rest will fall off.  The "thrower handle" tightens the belts that spin the shaft the impeller is mounted on, because it can't spin, it dies. Don't worry about engine compression, you've already run the engine with the front disengaged. Just concentrate on slicing off the paper in front of the impeller (to the left of it) from the front. Once that's cleared the stuff behind it will fall off.  Also, you might be able to get a big pair of pliers down the chute and pull some of it out, it's hard to tell from the pics.

I once cleared a jam like this quickly and easily with a torch. But I was going to repaint it anyway   You don't want to do that.

You can probably use a 2x4 and a sledge hammer to spin it out.  Just be careful as troy built/MTD is known to use not the thickest metal.  That impeller looks fairly strong though.  It looks like your biggest problem is the fin that is straight up, so if you spin it backwards a quarter turn you should knock it loose out the chute.  A 4 blade impeller would be easier because it looks like it is turned at an angle that you might not be able to get a good hit in on it.

You might get some more room to work if you unbolt both sides around the augers.  They are usually held in by 3 bolts on each side in a triangle pattern.  You won't be able to pull the whole assembly out since the belt and drive pulley are still connected in back.  I think someone else had to do that to get a door mat out about a month ago.  With the front shaft for the augers unbolted it will give you a little room to move it side to side and up and down.

If all else fails, take it back to your neighbors and tell him either he gets it out or you won't do his driveway anymore :)

Thank you for all the messages,  I brought it inside the garage and will douse it in boiling water.

To the poster about the sparkplug, I wouldn't have a clue how to take the plug out.


The last poster.   I have all kinds of back problems, and I do everyone's driveway in the neighborhood because I want to help and it doesn't really hurt (until I'm done, then it hurts badly)   the guy who's driveway I got stuck in knew about my back problem and saw me with the machine turned upside down in his driveway and he said "howdy neighbor, hows it going"  I said crappy, and he said well that's good  and moved on about his business.

The nice part of me which does all these driveways for no pay (not even if offered) says keep doing his driveway as you are doing it to be nice, the other part of me says, don't do it anymore as he didn't even offer to help you fix it. 

I thought by removing the chute I could have access to that auger and be able to help unwind stuff that way.   Thank you for all the replies, I will get to work on it tonight.



Take care.

He saw you with the machine upside down in HIS driveway with an obvious problem and didn't offer to help fix or pay for anything?

Sounds to me you found out where to pile everyone's snow from now on. :)

To add to the spark plug removal:  grab the wire on top of the plug and twist while pulling up, then get a deep socket and unscrew it.  It is that simple.
They make special spark plug sockets that have a rubber insert in them, but any deep well socket should do the job.  They do have a couple different sizes.

This should be part of your end of season storage since it is a good idea to remove the plug to put some oil inside the engine to prevent rust.

Grapeape, Wish you the best in getting the paper away from the impeller. As far as your inconsiderate neighbor, the kind of behavior exhibited would sure make me think twice about doing something nice like blowing out his driveway in the future. ratd

Grapeape:

First off, the owner of the driveway that had the paper in it should be responsible for removing it from the machine.  Otherwise, no more free snow removal.  Considering you have a bad back and that you're supplying the machine, maybe one of the neighbour's with a stronger back should be doing the work.  Just my two cents. 

Have you tried using a saw blade to loosen up the wad of paper?  Might take a while but it should cut through it.  Even a hack saw blade will remove enough to allow you to pry the rest out.

Hello,

Thanks for all the replies, its so nice to know that people care.

I don't know what to say about the guy who didn't come down, I don't like to judge.   Not sure if this makes a difference or not, but no one in the neighborhood asks me to do this, I just go from house to house until my back gives out, or I run out of gas, and then stop (in the gas case I walk back to the house with the machine and gas it up (so it's the same length walk back with the machine running,  It seems counterproductive, but I dont have a vehicle to push or pull it in)   anyway since no one is asking me to do this, I feel kinda left out in the cold  (oh  bad pun  LOL) about if they should do anything,  they are probably mad as all the paper which I couldn't pick up (I got most of it, and put it on his doorstep as he didn't even bring out a trashcan or offer to help pick it up)

Machine has been in a heated garage all night and hoping that all these ideas will help now that everything has dried up. 

To the poster about the spark plug  thank you so much,  I don't however have any tools like that,  I just have a few screwdrivers and a few wrenches (very small ones).

I'm a computer nerd and can fix that stuff just fine, machines, not so much. 



I will take pictures if it gets fixed as I think that all of you who invested your time answering my problem would be interested to know how it all came out. 
Oh, BTW one guy yesterday offered me some cash,  it actually looked to be a good bit with a five on the outside (could have been all ones under it, but I bet it was like $15)  I turned it down, but it was cool to offer.  One guy in the neighborhood told me to stop he didn't want me doing his driveway and I said I don't charge nor do I accept any tips, he still said leave.   That was last year, and I see him with one of those little tiny snow blowers this year and it takes him 40 minutes or more to do a small driveway, I still offer to do his as this workhorse can do it in hardly any time  (well it could do it  lol)

Anyway,  thanks so much again.     Going out there with the boiling water and a fashioned coat hanger to see what's up.

I ate a newspaper once with my Toro Powershift 824. I started by cutting the paper. The progress was too slow. I removed the 2 bolts holding the impeller to the shaft and was able to twistthe impeller immmedaitly clearing the jambed paper. How is the impeller mounted to theshaft in the Troybilt? 

Just take your time, keep softening it up with small applications of water and pick away at it slowly until you get it out. There is really no magic bullet in this case. Take care of your back, and if it makes you happy to help out others by cleaning up their snow, then that is it's own reward. Keep making yourself happy.

Cheers

A local kid used to be a  paper boy here.  Not that I subscribed to a newspaper but the kid also delivered tons of flyers.   He was a sneaky little jerk and would leave multiples of the same flyers on my steps without bundling them up.  I'd come home and find flyers all over the yard and neighbourhood.  Wasn't too happy with that so I complained to the newspaper that he worked for.   So, he get's the bundling part down but still leaves multiples of the same flyers and got into the habit of throwing them across the driveway to land where ever.  I spoke to the kid a few times and he agreed to stop doing it but never stopped doing it.  

One winter I hit a wad of flyers with the snow blower.  Not too bad of a mess but enough to pi$$ me off.    Knowing where the kid lived, I planned my revenge.  I prepared a couple stout bundles of flyers and kept them ready for the next big snow storm.  During the storm, I went for a bit of a walk and deposited  a couple bundles of flyers into the snow on the kid's driveway.  We got a good dump that night,  probably eight inches or so of dry but fine, heavy snow.   The next morning, after clearing my driveway, I decide to take a walk around the block to see how things were going down at the "site".   Sure enough, the driveway was partly done and I could see  their snow blower sitting silently in the garage.  The kid, not looking too happy was half heartedly puttering about with a snow shovel.  Nobody was working on the machine, but I assumed that I had achieved my goal.

As the expression aptly goes, "Revenge is a dish best served cold."   

Ultimately, that paper boy was so much trouble the company installed boxes for the papers to be deposited in at the end of customers driveways and delivery is now done by an adult driving a car. 

I forgot to add something which I think is funny to this story.

The first time I did this guys house (actually his parents house he's late 30's back living at home again or maybe early 40's.

Anyway he shook my hand and was happy I was doing it, and asked me if I wanted a beer, I told him that I had a machine to fix my back and alcohol interfered with the machine and the chemicals in the machine so I'd pass and he said how about a coke.   Now I'm losing weight, but at that time and place, a coke sounds incredible and I was like ya, that would hit the spot totally.    He comes back and says all we have is diet, here you go.

Man to get in your head you are going to have something and get your mouth watering for it, and then be brought something different, really bites  lol.

Going to go tomorrow and work on it, got down to 3 degrees tonight and even in a heated garage, it was still cold (a breeze coming from under the door  (something rubber needs to be replaced, but I can't figure it out and how to put it on)
Thank you again for all the replies, it does make me happy to think that I can help someone at something. 

Sometimes I feel like I'm the big dog as I go by with my big snowblower and people have this little teeny thing which looks like it would do 6" at a time and you have to go very slow lol.  I tell them to hold on and I'll have it done in a few minutes and they can go in and be with their families,  but maybe they like doing it also.    I just haven't found people who enjoy snow blowing,  maybe if it was a forced job everyday, I might feel different, but as it is now, if it snowed 10 days in a row, 10 days I'd be out doing this,   gotta figure out a way to bring gas with me though.  When I get close to out, I have to walk 1/2 mile back to my house to get gas and then use up 1/2 mile of gas going to the last place I was at and the same amount heading back.     Maybe start off at the furthest house and end up with houses closer to me. 


I wonder all of you who have answered.  If you were out doing people's driveways and such and never even got a thank you when the family was at home, would you keep doing it as you do it to help others and you are still helping by doing it, or is it inappropriate and or selfish to want to have someone out of the lot say thanks, nice job, or anything.     We are on assistance and even the money for gas on the blower is tough for us, but the enjoyment is like my chance to go to the movie or out to dinner (we can't really afford either)    Sometime it would be nice even if they didn't offer any money to say hey can I fill that tank up for you (I think it holds like 1/3 gallon or maybe 1/4 but it's small,  appears to do 5 driveways before needing to be refilled.

Just wondered our opinions.

Take care.

The Diet Coke - That would suck.

The Door Rubber - Those usually just get nailed / screwed to the bottom of the door.  The ones I have seen are always just open the door and put it flat on the bottom.

The Gas - Does your machine have a Tecumseh engine?  The smaller engines come with half gallon tanks and the larger ones come with 1 gallon tanks.  The mounts are the same so you can probably get a used tank off ebay or from someplace local and double the size of the tank provided you have enough room around the handlebars.  If you have a local small engine shop close by they probably have a blown up engine in the back somewhere you might be able to snag one off.  You could probably mount a second tank on the front / back of the engine and tie the two together if need be.  This would be for the old L-Head design.  The OHV engines are a little different and I am not sure if they would be interchangeable without a lot of work.  Your other choice would be to somehow mount a gas can on the handle bars or something.

Thank you Shryp,   hope we get more snow,  the idea about the tank is a great one.

grapeape wrote:
Funny story...Years ago I lived in Pittsburgh and was on an out of town business trip with a co-worker.  The day before we returned Pittsburgh got hit with an 8-10 inch snow storm.  My buddy was excited about the snow because he just bought a new Toro 2 stage after years of using a shovel and couldn't wait to use it for the first time.  We had car-pooled to the airport so I drove him home and as we approached his house he started screaming obscenities.  A well-meaning neighbor had totally cleared his driveway an hour before we got there.  Poor guy looked ready to cry.

grapeape...good luck with the jam.  Most of us have been in your shoes.  A sturdy pick, something like a heavy duty cotter pin puller may be helpful.  And be careful...the spark plug recommendation is important.

grapeape,

For the door rubber, I've seen two types that go n the bottom of a roll up door.

The first one you see usually on the bottom of wooden doors and it's usually just nailed on the bottom with roofing nails, The second is usually found on metal doors and consists of an aluminium track screwed to the bottom of the door and the rubber strip slides into the tracks from the end. The third picture is something you glue to the floor of the garage to supplement whatever you have now.

I just replaced my seal (the second type). The old one had shrunk about 6 inches in length so there was quite a large gap. It slipped out fairly easily but before I tried to put the new one in I sprayed a silicone type lubricant liberally into the track and on the seal. After that the new one slid in without much fuss. I also took a tip from an old timer at the hardware store, and slid a length of 1" foam backer rod into the U shape of the door seal to give it more body and a much better seal.

Cheers

Not to get too far off topic, but #3 above also prevents water (melted snow or rain dripping from the car) from leaving the garage. Not Good.
I have #2 on my steel doors and I have to replace it with #1 because mice and/or chipmunks can and do easily chew through #2.

Hello Everyone,

Just wanted to say thanks so much for all the ideas.
So here is an update.  (we are under a ton of ice now, so Mr. Toro he don't uh work so well)

With the help of a friend we used the following tools
buckets of boiling water
drywall saw
Drill
kitchen knives
hammer
pliers

Tried the water, and just couldn't get it to come free, but it did end up hardening the whole thing up which was good as it became so hard that all the above tools worked.

Used the knife and hit the hammer so the knife went into the blockage and kept moving that around to make mini tunnels.  Drilled holes as best I could to make more tunnels.
The pliers were used by my friend to pull off the loose items, and the drywall saw was used on each side to move in closer.  Periodically we started it up and engaged the blower for like 1/100 of a second to see if any movement.
No movement, this isn't working, then the problem is spotted the hardest piece of all, felt like concrete lower left part of the auger more sawing and knifing into it and wow, a huge chunk breaks free.    We both say its time to try to start and engage it again.   Start it up and engage and BLAUGH..................................  newspaper everywhere.   It's free.

Then the ice storm  lol.

Thank you so much for all of your advice, I didn't have a wrench for the spark plug so it stayed in, but I used all the other ideas.