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

Anyone ever use one? Thoughts? Are parts still available? I have an opprtunity to buy one at whay I'm guessing is close to a fair price...certainly not a "deal" though.

     I've owned about 8 of them over the years.  I rebuilt the engine on one and the quality inside
 was impressive with zero comparison to Briggs or Tecumseh.  
They are a robustly built machine and minimally the quality of a Honda if not better.

Yamaha is a friction disk drive machine.  Nice layout of controls between the handlebars.

     The parts are very available from many sources.  You can get exploded views at boats.net with
prices.  

    There are two major divisions of models which roughly cover 1985 to the mid 90's.  You can tell
them apart by the gas tank.  The older version has a square metal tank.  The newer has a plastic
molded fitted above and around the engine.
 
    I've never owned an early type.  I know the engines went through a redesign from old to new.  Most
of the body and tractor drive section is similar between the two. 

   The Yamaha snowblowers are so nice they have a cult following and even a fan club.  Google
Nabble and Yamaha.  You can get manuals there.

   The overall design is very nice. The 6 will throw like an 8.

   Since it's a track check the rakes.  They should have teeth and may be worn.  There are three
positions for the bucket and often users don't know to get it off the weight forward position when not
needed. 

   Look at the condition of the back skids.  Most often the bolts on those will  be rust
frozen and snap.  The fix is to put on bucket side skids which are much better for handling. 

   They are much easier to push around than a Honda when not running.  They don't start as
easily as a Honda but start well enough.

  
  

Trouts, thanks for the info. I tried but missed out on the Yamaha...someone beat me to it. Bummed out because I always wanted to try a tracked snowblower but not too bad because I would of had to pay top dollar to get it. Maybe the next one...