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

Big thanks to all of you who championed the ss blower, I'm a convert. I used to sneer at those little under powered sissy toys, but no more.
We had a good 8-10 inches of very light snow overnight and the plow had passed, so there was about 3-4 inches of denser snow deeper than the opening of the blower. Fired her up, let her warm up for a couple of minutes and started cautiously. WOW, she threw like a champ, at least 20 to 30 feet, and she's not even Boratified yet! Slowed a bit when pushed hard but never stalled.
She's an MTD 4.5 / 21 with electric start and the Tecumseh HSK845 (DOM 2002). Picked it up at the local recycle yard for $40 (I know I paid too much). The compression seemed good at 93 lbs., so I put in some gas and she fired right up. As soon as she shut down, the carb started to leak a lot. So I put her away for the summer & ordered some paddles, belt and scraper bar from fleabay (shoulda ordered the carb kit too).
So mid november I went to the local small engine shop and bought a carb kit, 2 ft. of fuel line, clamps, a shutoff valve and a carb to intake gasket (might have been something else). When he said $90, I thought he was joking, but no! Since I waited till the last minute, he had me (won't do that again).
Now I'm into it for about $170, so that takes some of the shine off my deal, but she throws so well and is so easy to handle, I can't be too sad. May try and take a video if I get the chance.

Did anyone else get snow?

Cheers
Paul

12" in Upstate NY (Schenectady) - light power snow.  2-stage Ariens threw it a mile - well a  1/2 mile !

Welcome to the SS club.  Everyone loves the manly beast 2 stage, but the SS is by far my favorite snowblower.  They are quite capable machines, not as depicted by that guy on the Arien's youtube channel.  Just learn how to use it properly and it then you will appreciate it.  Kind of ironic but 2 years after Ariens put up that video showcasing the weakness of a SS against a 2 stage Snotek, they came out with a SS of their own.  For $600, I rather spend it on a Toro SS rather than a Snotek 2 stage.

We got snow here 4 times in the last two weeks.  Each time it was about 2-4 inches of snow.  Not big enough snowfall to bring out the 2 stage snowblower, but it was a perfect job for a single stage. 

Good to hear you appreciate the SS machine.   Forty buck is a great deal!  You got shafted for the carb kit etc.  You probably only needed to take the carb apart, clean it and put it back together nice and tight.

I've been flogging the Murray on the driveway and MTD is doing it's usual duty on the deck.  We have close to three feet of snow now.  Two storms early in December back to back gave us two feet of dense snow.  Too much for the SS machines.  Had to put the Simplicity to work on the driveway.  Got another foot of real fluffy stuff yesterday.  The forecast was for 2 cm????   Got to wonder whose doing the forecasting?   I just shoveled it all to the sides then threw it with the Simplicity.

borat wrote:
Just wondering why you had to shovel? I'm sure your Simplicity could have moved it easily with a low trajectory on the chute deflector to keep it from going everywhere...no? Or did you just feel like getting a bit of physical activity? :-)

slinger wrote:
Fluffy stuff.  It's like blowing air and I do like to get a bit of physical exercise.  I often shovel until it becomes tiring then I pull out a suitable machine to do the rest of the job. 

I pulled out the old Craftsman SS machine a few days ago after seasonal storage.  Fired up and ran on the first pull.  However, after a bit, the engine revs started climbing without any input.  I'm thinking it might have an air leak at the carb manifold or crank seals.  Got it in the basement waiting for my attention.

 Will post results.

Opened up the Craftsman and noticed that the original engine mount that attaches it to the frame/handle side had broken completely through and the engine was being held by the makeshift bolster that I had fabricated a couple years ago.  It's fairly wobbly being held by one bolt on the side.   Not sure if that's what caused or contributed to the engine rpms rising?  Everything else seems alright.  Crank has no play in it, carb and exhaust both on tight.  Governor working as intended.  I'll be taking the engine out and bolting it to a plate that i can secure in a vice and fire it up to do some leakage tests.  We'll have to see how it goes from there.   

I took my Honda 928 out to clear the pond so my kids could skate. However the pond edges were too soft and it would have sunk if I went too far. Luckily I stopped before the debacle and backed away from the soft edges. Took my HS520 out and it did a nice job clearing out 4-5" of snow and polishing the ice. Sinking 520 is not a big deal but a sunken 928 would have been very bad. SS is a very nice tool and gets used 95% of the time after a snow fall.

borat wrote:
Borat, hope you can fix it without too much trobule. Based on yours & others experiences in this area, I double checked engine mounts while it was on the bench. In this machine the motor is suspended by 4 bolts through the side where the drive shaft comes out.


Seemed rigid enough, but I added a couple pieces of angle iron to connect the unused mounting bolt on the flywheel cover to a crossbar the passes underneath the engine (haven't painted anything yet & at the frequency it's snowing that may wait till spring)



I also borrowed your idea to add a throttle cable (string).



Drilled a hole through the governor spring bracket to act as a guide. The string goes from the governor lever, through the hole & straight up through a hole in the engine cover. From there it's tied to the handle bar for now. Working on adapting a bicycle brake lever to control it.

Boy, it really works a treat and increases the trowing distance when you up the rpm.

GtWtNorth:

Your engine mount set up is much sturdier than the Craftsman set up.  It's no wonder that the mount broke on mine.  It's no more than a flimsy "L" bracket bolted to the left side handle upright and the engine hanging off the other side.  No mount on the bottom that would normally be attached to a cross rod.  The Murray I have which is almost identical to the Craftsman has a bottom mount.  I can probably have the mount welded but I'm not too concerned about it due to having the Murray and the MTD.  The intention was to have one available for parts.  Looks like the Crapman was first to volunteer.  My main concern is to ensure the engine is good.  The other parts will be a bonus. 


All that's holding the engine is the gray steel bracket.  One bolt on the handle and two on the engine. 

Borat, Yikes, I see what you mean. Talk about planned obsolescence! Doesn't even look like there is any kind of crossbar to attach a bracket to the flywheel housing so even rewelding would just prolong the inevitable. Into the parts pile with her.

Cheers
Paul