NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, tell an auto shop “There’s no hurry on this”.
Most reputable shops are so busy it will get pushed off to sometime next year!!
If they can get your vehicle in right away—-BIG red flag to this guy.
Never told them it wasnt a rush. He asked him how soon he could get it in and how long it would take. They told him bring it in next week (brought in on a Monday) and it will be done by Thanksgiving which was the following week.
I took mine out before our first snow and it did not want to start and run without the choke on half way. I think its just old gas, but I always use non-oxy 91 and its never been a problem over the summer before.
Don’t do it! Don’t run a small engine on half choke. You’ll wash the oil from the cylinder with the super rich fuel to air ratio and wreck the rings. My father effed his blower engine doing this and I just did a compactor that got wrecked doing this.
Your problem is your carb has deposits in it from fuel evaporation and it’s preventing your engine from getting the right mixture.
Did not mean to imply that you did Captain. Your post just reminded me of this issue. Sorry that it came across that way.
Did not mean to imply that you did Captain. Your post just reminded me of this issue. Sorry that it came across that way.
No worries. I know a lot of people do that and one might assume that since this is a sports car they wouldnt be in a hurry to drive it, but in this case the warranty will be short so he wanted to drive it a few months/weeks to basically shake it down to make sure everything was OK and not waste months of it being parked.
Don’t do it! Don’t run a small engine on half choke. You’ll wash the oil from the cylinder with the super rich fuel to air ratio and wreck the rings. My father effed his blower engine doing this and I just did a compactor that got wrecked doing this.
Your problem is your carb has deposits in it from fuel evaporation and it’s preventing your engine from getting the right mixture.
Yeah, I am a knucklehead sometimes. Its basically brand new since I got it last Fall. I will run it this weekend after putting some seafoam in there and see how it goes.
Here’s my tale of woe….
I have two snowblowers, a little light duty one and a big heavy two stage. I change oil, lube everything, check air in the tires, run non-oxy gasoline. And I start and run them on the first of every month religiously. So yesterday it finally stops snowing and I head out to find six or seven inches of wet heavy crap. Definitely a job for the big machine. It pops off on the first pull, and that 8 hp engine is roaring. Great. I go maybe 12 or 15 feet and it quits throwing snow, it’s just pushing it in front of the machine. After a little troubleshooting in the driveway I found that the sheer pin on the second stage auger was gone. OK, not problem, right? Well there was a ton of wet sloppy and now freezing snow behind the second stage auger, and it wouldn’t let me move down the shaft far enough to get a replacement pin back in. Aaarrrgghhh! All I could do was wheel it back into the garage and thaw it out. Two hours later I finally get done with the little machine, and it was tough.
This afternoon it took maybe five minutes to drop in the new pin. I hope I’m ready for the next one that hits us!
SR
The Big issue here is peoples lack of thinking ahead or laziness.
Cant always feed the wildlife or they come dependent…
I go maybe 12 or 15 feet and it quits throwing snow, it’s just pushing it in front of the machine. After a little troubleshooting in the driveway I found that the sheer pin on the second stage auger was gone. OK, not problem, right? Well there was a ton of wet sloppy and now freezing snow behind the second stage auger, and it wouldn’t let me move down the shaft far enough to get a replacement pin back in. Aaarrrgghhh! All I could do was wheel it back into the garage and thaw it out. Two hours later I finally get done with the little machine, and it was tough.
That’s about all you can do with shear pins on the impeller. At least you had shear pins, so good thinking on your part because I bet Fleet and Menards are cleaned out as of today.
I keep a little electric heater out in the shop for exactly this situation. It has a nice fan that really blows the warm air forward. Set it up on a block of wood aimed right at the impeller and get it as close as possible and it will thaw a blower in about 20 minutes.
At least it wasn’t the gearbox!
My snowblower was doing great til she seen me get home from work and decided the rest was up to me.
My only regret related to snowblowers is selling a single stage Toro (CCR 3650 I think)? to a neighbor when we moved out of town to the new place. That thing was bullet proof, easy to work on, and ate more snow than 2/3 of bigger 2 stage blowers that are moderately powered and cost twice as much.
Now I only have to take care of the garage apron by hand (42′ wide x 10′ wide) so a shovel is fine. The other 1200′ of driveway is getting the plow truck or tractor.
Got my first 2 text today about looking at non starting snow blowers. I work on them to help people in my area that can not wait 4 weeks at the local shop. Fishing money is what I tell my wife LOL
I just handed down my old Toro 421 to my 12 year old nephew for his snow removal business. My Dad purchased it for my Mom before I was born. She gave it to my brother when he bought his first house and he gave it to me when I got my first house. My Dad taught us about proper maintenance and how it pays off. 42 year old snowblower still started up on the first pull. Some say they don’t make things like they used to. I say people don’t maintain things like they used to.
My only regret related to snowblowers is selling a single stage Toro (CCR 3650 I think)? to a neighbor when we moved out of town to the new place. That thing was bullet proof, easy to work on, and ate more snow than 2/3 of bigger 2 stage blowers that are moderately powered and cost twice as much.
Yep, bigger isnt always better. I had a JD 1032D walk behind and it was terrible for blowing snow. Neighbor had a Simplicity 928 I think and he could blow snow in 4th gear that was over a foot deep. Got rid of that JD and got a smaller Simplicity and this thing throws snow that will fill my neighbors driveway at speeds I cannot even walk behind. I like my neighbor so I dont.
Grouse,
you’ve got to have some more good neighbor/snowblower stories after this last storm. Let’s hear em!
This snow sucked. But my old mtd 24/5 ate right through it. Did our house my buddies next door and the old ladies next to him. Had to clean out the chute 100 times but better then shoveling the crap
I cant wait to hear how he deals with one that tried to eat 50 feet of garden hose or an anchor rope tossed out and forgotten when getting the boat ready for storage.
Best snow blower story I have is one I overhauled way back in high school.
Big three point job that took a 120 HP tractor to run.
It got bought by a neighbor of mine at the original owners farm auction, the neighbor said it would just lug the guts out of his IH 1086 tractor.
He asked me to look at it as he had heard that I went clear through it, it had been almost thirty years since I had seen it last and immediately spotted the problem.
Danged auctioneers helper had been putting PTO shafts on everything that didnt have one on sale day, he sorta messed up.
He had placed a 1000 RPM shaft onto a 540 RPM implement, I bet that thing would fling snow two hundred yards when it was up against the governor of that poor 150 HP tractor!!!
Just so you understand, that blower at full tractor RPM’s was supposed to only turn 540 RPM, with the wrong shaft on it it was trying to spin at twice the speed it was rated for !!
Grouse,
you’ve got to have some more good neighbor/snowblower stories after this last storm. Let’s hear em!
This is what I call a belt burner snow. Surprisingly I had only one belt yesterday.
If the belts on your machine are more than 5 years old go get new ones while you still can. It gets staying tough to find belts sometimes during the middle of the season.
And I had one machine that wouldn’t start. Guy hauled it all the way over. It was out of gas. Checked for fuel leaks anyway to make sure he didn’t have a stuck float that was draining all the fuel out or something like that. Turned out he just forgot to fill it at the beginning of the season.
Well, the Screamin’ Honda and I did our driveway, the neighbor’s (elderly couple) and our friends down the block. Wow is that sh!t heavy.
Anybody know where I can get a turbo kit for a Honda GX? Need more power, baby.
For those of you with newer rigs, I’m looking at upgrading to either a Toro Powermax 828 or the Ariens Deluxe 26. I know Ariens is essentially the gold standard, but Toro machines seem to be held in high regard as well. Price is very similar between the models so there is really no sway one way or another.
I currently have an old Ariens ST524 5hp unit that…while reliable (I can’t seem to kill that old Tecumseh) is overmatched with any sort of wet snow. Takes forever and I end up sweating out weight like a prize fighter cutting weight.
Replaced my old Toro with an Ariens several years ago. Like you said, good motor. Problem with my Toro was the plastic snow chute and plastic gearing to turn the chute. Went to crap. Gave it to a friend who bought the new parts and fixed it. Was only 4-5 years old at the time. I would make sure to pass on any Toro with plastic chut or gears.
-J.
Here’s another funny snowblower story. I knew I was due for an upgrade soon and really wanted to get the 2 stage EGO, but I just couldn’t pull the trigger on a $1700 unit so instead I just picked up a $400 “like new” unit on Marketplace. My old 8hp unit was working ok, but starting to show it’s age with rust or whatnot. I figured I’d list it “as is” and see if I could get $100 for it since everything was functional. Sat on that for a bit and was tired of looking at it (and having 2 in my garage), so I posted in my neighborhood app that I would let it go for $50 to a resident of our development and would even deliver it. Only took an hour and deal was arranged. Brought it over, started it up and demonstrated how it worked and took off. Sweet, that’s done.
We got snow that very same day and I get a message from the buyer that night “won’t start, can you help?”. Figured it was just being finicky as the primer was weak so I always used the Elec start. I get over there and the elec starter is completely dead. It just randomly quit the first time he used it. I didn’t have time to deal with that so I tried pulling it over with no luck. I had some things to do, but said I’d be over later to get it going for him. So I stopped by with a plug wrench and starting fluid. A few shots of go juice and she was good to go. I refunded him the $50 to go towards a new starter and left it at that. So in the end it actually cost me a few hours and a can of starting fluid to get rid of that old snowblower. LOL
For those of you with newer rigs, I’m looking at upgrading to either a Toro Powermax 828 or the Ariens Deluxe 26. I know Ariens is essentially the gold standard, but Toro machines seem to be held in high regard as well. Price is very similar between the models so there is really no sway one way or another.
They are both very good machines. Both have a great main dealer network and parts support is excellent for both brands.
IMO you will be happy with either unit.
The plastic chute gear system Jon refers to is no longer on Toro 2 stage machines at all, they now use a cable driven joystick controller on 2 stage models. The only one of these I have fixed was because the guy hooked a cable on a railing and ripped it out. Operator error.
As a note in this is probably just a personal bias but I would prefer to buy both of these brands from an actual power equipment dealer and not a big box store. If you have problems The Big box store has no service department to help you.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>waldo9190 wrote:</div>
For those of you with newer rigs, I’m looking at upgrading to either a Toro Powermax 828 or the Ariens Deluxe 26. I know Ariens is essentially the gold standard, but Toro machines seem to be held in high regard as well. Price is very similar between the models so there is really no sway one way or another.They are both very good machines. Both have a great main dealer network and parts support is excellent for both brands.
IMO you will be happy with either unit.
The plastic chute gear system Jon refers to is no longer on Toro 2 stage machines at all, they now use a cable driven joystick controller on 2 stage models. The only one of these I have fixed was because the guy hooked a cable on a railing and ripped it out. Operator error.
As a note in this is probably just a personal bias but I would prefer to buy both of these brands from an actual power equipment dealer and not a big box store. If you have problems The Big box store has no service department to help you.
That was my thought as well. L&M locally carries the Ariens so I’ve been leaning that route.
The reminder on the belt is a good one, I need to look at mine some time but I almost never use my blower, we just don’t get enough snow, I think it has been 3 years since I ran it. My belt is still original from 99.
At my last house (same snowblower) I blew out my neighbors driveway to help him out since it was a big snow…..didn’t see the extension cord he had out there to plug his truck in with. My blower just cut the cord up into pieces and blew it out. You can hear when something other than snow comes out the chute so that is when I stopped to see what I caught….ooops. Even the cord didn’t stop the blower or plug up the impellers..lucky
Last year I bought the Toro from a local hardware store, very pleased so far. Overhauled my 15 year old Yard Machine two stage and gave it to my kid. He bought a corner lot home in St. Paul, spent his first year shoveling by hand. Was very pleased last year to be able to blow the sidewalk around the corner and called to thank me yesterday after doing his sidewalk and driveway. We both won.
The plastic chute gear system Jon refers to is no longer on Toro 2 stage machines at all,
There are a few shown on their website. For example:
-J.
There are a few shown on their website.
-J.
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I seen it on them at the local hardware store as well a few days ago
There are a few shown on their website. For example:
-J.
Never seen that model. So it’s still in use on the mini 2 stages I guess.
Those snowmasters are a weird hybrid that sure seem like the worst of both worlds.
Grouse suggestions,
As a note in this is probably just a personal bias but I would prefer to buy both of these brands from an actual power equipment dealer and not a big box store. If you have problems The Big box store has no service department to help you.
I thought you were the service department? 
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