>>>I am feeling less power when it is under load and by load I mean like 6 iches of moderate snow nothing really heavy. It still seems to throw it as far but works really hard to throw it.
That seems like something in the front end might be pinched or out of wack to cause the engine to work harder to toss. Are you sure you got all the wire out? Sometimes crap gets in by the auger ends and binds.
>>>The thing is I picked up a Christmas wreath and must have used the blower for a good 20 minutes with the wire and branches wrapped around the auger.
The wreath pickup could have caused some belt stress or wear. That might cause a loss of performance but would not make the engine work harder – it would be slipping and work less hard.
>>>I can't tell if it's making less progress since the EOD was very nasty slush and teh treads were full of caked in slush and the wheels were slipping a bit, much worse than normally
You can tell if it’s going forward or not in EOD. If you can’t make progress look at the wheels to see if they are slipping or stationary when you can’t do forward.
You mentioned some wheel slip which is good as that indicates the friction disk is not slipping. Drive into a bank and see what it does.
>>>and it wasnted to pull to the left or right much more than normal.
In wet sloppy conditions the skids can catch more versus glide more on like a cold snow layer. If you’re on a very flat surface it should not pull. When the skids are exposed to driveway and it’s uneven it can pull. You can check to see of the skids are still set right by looking at the height of each skid when in the garage.
>>>There isn't a lot of oil but it looks like it's still sort of coming out asI wiped it off and more dirtied up the snow around the wheel. Looks more like grease than oil.
You can pull the wheel as Borat mentioned and take a look at the axle. You want to make sure it’s water/rust/grease from the axle and not a leak carried from the tractor section along the hub to the outside of the hub. If more was running out after a wipe it’s probably not grease. Possibly just water and rust discolored with oil or grease.
>>I'm really not sure how to check the whole thing out or how to open it up. For certain something is going on tho.
The issues:
1. Poor tossing, has to work harder.
2. Pulling
3. Wheel slip or not
4. Oil/grease/rust drip at the hub.
1. It’s your machine and if you’re sure it’s under performing and bogging down then it should looked at. If you can’t do that then you should probably take it in to get checked out. Are you sure all the wire was gotten out? There may be some wedges in by the auger ends which can bog the auger down.
2. You can checkout the skid setting.
3. You can check slip by looking at the wheels while driving into a very difficult load.
4. Pull the wheel and take of the bottom panel. The bottom panel is 4-6 screws and easy to do. You can then look in there and poke around. If you can’t do that then you should probably take it in given #1 also.
