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

Posted for Jason.

  What are the factory model and serial numbers off the back of the lower base?  With two reverse and three forward it's probably a  70's model and they had a few different drive systems in those years.  Too late to look into this now.  I'll take a shot in the morning but need the model #.

Jasons question below:

I have a Toro 524 snow blower that used to go in 1st gear only, along with reverse-1. 2nd, 3rd, and reverse-2 were a no-go. I adjusted the links and that didn't help. I then took it apart and replaced the friction wheel, but it's the same.

I do see that the drive pulley assembly (the one that has the: drive pulley, shaft, rear pulley, thrust washer, axle, 2 thrust washers, spacer, key) has a bit of play in it. e.g., I can push the big drive pulley up (with the snowblower standing up to access it), and then the friction wheel seems to make good contact with the drive pulley. But of course it doesn't stay that way. I then thought the thrust washers above the rear pulley must have worn down and broken off. I noticed the one thrust washer above the rear pulley, but thought the other was missing that goes below the spacer. I took the entire assembly apart, and then found there were 2 thrust washers below the spacer. However, the amount of space between the spacer and the key is quite a bit -- and when i push the shaft up to make up that space, that's when the friction wheel makes good contact.

So given this information, my question is: could the spacer be worn down that much to cause this problem? If so, what should the width of a new spacer be so I can compare it to mine? I've also heard about some bearings which could go bad that could cause this as well. If so, which ones should I check? Any thing else I should check? Thanks so much for any help you could provide! Thanks, -- Jason