Snowblower Problem

[motley man]

My snowblower quit moving, anyone have a idea what's wrong. It has stopped a couple times before and started working, but not this time. Is it something to do with rubberwheel adjustment. Your help greatly appreciated. Why is it this always happens when you need it the most.

[hondarider550]

Have you checked to see if there are any V-belts used to power the drive wheels? The v belt might have been stretched out enough to bother and now finally broke. There may be a guard/shield covering the belts that power the unit.

Of course it happens when you need it the worst... I always say that I should fix this or that during the dwon time but it never happens that way...

[icerube]

What happens is your rubber wheel (clutch) gets wet and is slipping, look for a adjuster in the wheel drive linkage and tighten it up. Good luck

[cold one sd]

Tip your blower up on the front of the auger, pull the cover off of the bottom above the wheels and check your drive wheel. I bet it needs to be replaced. Easy job.

[Northlander]

That would be my guess as well.

[Jim Almquist]

All you might have to do is adjust it so it will engage. On mine all you do is loosen the nut and turn the adjustment rod a few turn so it shortens the length and then tighten the nut and give it a try. The rubber wheel may have worn just enough so it is not making good enough contact.

[wishing for walleyes]

The rubber wheel would be called the friction disc.Every few years they need to be replaced.

[loosegoose]

I'm certain as well that you'll have to replace your rubber drive wheel. Easy on some models a pain on others. While blowing snow don't push your blower, go slower and let it do it's job. You'll find your drive wheel will last a lot longer.

[mamohr686]

Most snowblowers also have a shear-pin on the drive shaft. It's a bolt that is off-colored and intended to break to prevent dammage to gears. I've had to replace a few over the years and it usally happens when we have wet/heavy snow like we did recently.

[hondarider550]

Unfortunately I had a shear bolt break on my auger the other day. Not a big problem until I started blowing again and found out that the auger was not turning... Found out that I shattered my bevel gear in the gear box that runs the auger... $60 later I am waiting for the part from MTD. I sure hope that it does not snow much before the part comes...

[DTro]

I heard several stories about shear bolts breaking last weekend.

Up until now, I didn't even know they had shear bolts.

[CaptainBly]

Yeah, I was home for the holidays was blowing for dad and all ovf a sudden quit blowing. The front auger still turned, but the fan quit. Come to find out the there are two roll pins that had sheered. What a pain to change when you don't have the right tools. After an hour or so I back having fun.

[Tom7227]

Unfortunately I had a shear bolt break on my auger the other day. Not a big problem until I started blowing again and found out that the auger was not turning... Found out that I shattered my bevel gear in the gear box that runs the auger... $60 later I am waiting for the part from MTD. I sure hope that it does not snow much before the part comes...

I just worked on mine last week. Be sure to pick up some of the special low temp lubricant and put the proper amount in the housing before you put it back together. I used some of the blue silicone gasket stuff to make sure it didn't leak out the sides. It was a three handed job on mine so you may need to borrow someone to put it all back together.

[Swimmer]

I've run on a totally worn hacked up rubber drive wheel for three years now with no problems. Check the rod that runs from the disengage (neutral) lever and make sure that it is fully engaging the gears when "on". I pulled a cotter pin today and unscrewed the rod a couple turns so that the lever would fully engage the transmission. Tip it up and take a look underneath...these beasts are not that complicated and by moving the levers, ect. you may be able to diagnose the problem. Good luck.

[Riich]

Do you have a manual for your machine? If not, they are priceless, mine shows detailed drawings of everything, part numbers for new parts you may need, and how to install them. Get one, it'll help get you up and running in no time.

[Tom7227]

Do you have a manual for your machine? If not, they are priceless, mine shows detailed drawings of everything, part numbers for new parts you may need, and how to install them. Get one, it'll help get you up and running in no time.

I found the manual for my 25+ year old White on line and it was a great help. Screw around a bit on the Google and check a number of places and you may score if you need to figure stuff out or get parts numbers. The blowers only gave about 10 hours or less a year on them on average so the decently built ones should last a long time and are worth trying to fix.

[PierBridge]

I just did the wheel which was warn down to practically nothing and both shear-pins after the last Snow storm.

Thank Goodness for heated garage's. Getting one of the darn broken shear-pins out was a bigger hassle than the wheel was.....

Good Luck!