Per Norminn:
One thing I would look for is working shear pins on the impeller.
I have a snow blower add-on for my BCS standup tractor and found that the factory had pounded in steel sleeves where shear pins should have been.
You hit a newspaper or something in that condition and I would think it could break a crankshaft.
You think running over the newspaper makes a mess, you want to see what happens when you run over your tire chains!!!! Had a customer have that happen the end of last season - took out both shear pins, and wrapped the cain around the impeller so hard it snapped the drive belt. Took me about an hour to get the chain out this summer.
Around here (southern Ontario) Shell premium fuel still has no ethanol in it. All I ever use in my small engines - and the Yamaha has a fancy fuel shut-off valve that allows you to drain the carb and lines with a simple twist. I fill the tank and drain the carb when I put the blower away for the summer. The mower has a simple fuel shut-off and I just run the carb dry when I put it away.
If I never completely filled mine I'd be stopping half way through most jobs to add fuel ---
I drilled a small hole in the air-box to accept the little red tube on the ether can. When it's cold I give it full choke and a little whiff of starting fluid and it starts on the first or second turn.
Some of us really NEED a 2 stage blower, so electric is out of the question, even if we were willing to take the chance of chopping up the power cord. Electric snow shovels are fine for small sidewalks, porches, and decks.
Actually better to leave the tank right full than 1/4 or less. No air-space means no condensation and therefore no water in the gas. Also means less surface area exposed for evaporation. Ive seen too many tanks left empty or almost empty for a year at a time all rusted inside - and the rust dust screws up the carb real good (and eventually the tank rusts through)
I store my equipment with the tank full (of non ethanol gas) and the carb drained -
Generally the impeller is belt driven and the belt just disintegrates if the engine has enough power to do any damage.
Per snipped-for-privacy@snyder.on.ca:
My rig is 100% gear-driven and it has made me a believer in belt drives, which look to me to be:
- Vastly lighter
- Less expensive
- Nowhere near as noisy
How does the blower disconnect from the engine??
Good luck with that. IDK where you can find gas without alcohol in it around here, NJ.
That's all that is available around here.
Yes, IDK how much better newer ones are. I don't think it's just alcohol attacking the seals. You would think there are suitable gasket, seal, etc materials that alcohol would not affect. I think the other part of the problem is the alcohol attracts water and that in turn creates gunk, corrosion, etc.
Yes, that;s probably the best. If you can remember. I forgot again with my snowblower. But tested it a couple weeks ago and it started right up, runs OK. Guess I got lucky. Not sure why. It didn't have stabilizer in it either. As I said, other times, in just a few months, when I realized I hadn't taken care of it, it was already fouled.
Sounded like the ice was because of incomplete snow plowing. Many snow throwers cut close to the surface.
- . Christopher A. Young learn more about Jesus .
No. the ice was for exactly the reason he gave. Getting older and lazier he didn't get the slo[p shovelled, and it froze. That's why he wants a blower.
It was above freezing here today and everything turned to slop. Dropping to -20C overnight, so I got out the snowblower (AKA the "slop pump") andgot rid of all the crap that was going to turn into rocks and "road turds" overnight. The old Yamaha can blow water 20 feet!!!.
If I had not gone out and moved that crap it would have become an awfull icy mess overnight. (It will likely still be bad enough in the morning - I didn't blow the whole block!!!
I think gas at marine areas is alcohol free otherwise only places around here I've seen were in MD 100 miles from me.
My lawn mower and generator have shut off valves from gas tank and they are easy to run dry. With snow thrower I have to siphon and then it still takes several minutes to run dry.
Guy I know that used to have a service gas station and now deals with lawn service knows engines and said it depends on type of carburetor that might have evaporation problem.
I store stabilized gas for generator and recycle in 2 years in car if not used. I was using some stabilized gas in a can for my weed wacker with 2 cycle oil and it lasted over 5 years before going bad.
A local equipment dealer here in CT carries it in 5 gallon cans. It was at a high price, but not outrageous.
Do like I did on my old snow blower. I cut the hose and put a shut-off valve in-line.
Up here in the "great white North" Shell premium fuel is ethanol free. The low octane dtuff is E5, so that makes the mid premium E2.5
When I had a '67 Pontiac Catalina with a 385ci engine, it often woudn't start in cold weather, so I drilled a hole in the fire wall and and made one in the glove box, and ran some thin clear tubing from the glove box to the carbureter, with a short piece of polethylend tubing at the carburetor end of that.
The other end went on a can of ether in the glove box. After that I never had to get out of the car, and the car started every time.
I'm not a "he". I DID get the driveway shoveled every time it snowed last year. The reason for shopping for a snow blower is to keep the drive clear and PREVENT it from becoming an ice berg. :o) 8" of wet snow is heavy damn stuff and I don't need back aches!
Per snipped-for-privacy@snyder.on.ca:
The engine is mounted on a transmission that drives the wheels and has a PTO. All implements attach to the PTO:
The idea sounds pretty good but the implementation is strictly Release
1.0.It's like they designed it, put it into production, and never fixed any of the inevitable design bugs - like the starter handle getting wedged in the engine protector cage (which could be cured by moving one of the cage bars a quarter of an inch) or the dead-man switch with wires running outside where then can snag on brush... and a disconnected wire just quietly disables the dead-man function until the operator finds out the hard way....
Also, in spite of the idea sounding pretty good (only one engine to maintain....) the reality is that you can, for instance, get a pretty-good snow blower for less than the thousand dollars they get for their single-stage snow thrower attachment whose housing rusted out and failed completely after about five years of use....and whose replacement housing was made out of some cheap metal that actually *tore* when it rubbed up against an obstacle...and wasn't even primed before being painted.
Probably more than you wanted to know..... -)
Same reason I bought a REAL snow blower. If you live where you get 8 inches of heavy stuff do yourself a favour and don't even CPONSIDER a single stage or electric blower. Get a Honda, since the Yamahas are not common and the quality and engineering on so much of the other product out there is suspect. Get hydrostatic drive too - no slipping friction drive when that wet slop gets into the machine - and track drive gives traction without chains to fall off and get gobbled up by the blower (and to rust) and no tires to keep going flat.
The Honda WILL cost you more than even a Troy-Bilt - but you seldome get more than what you pay for.
I'll bet you lunch at your favourite restaurant you never owned a 67 Cat with a 385 Cu Inch engine. You might have owned a 66 with a 389, or a 67 with a 400 but The "Iron Indian" never had a 385
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