Free snow blower adventure
Posted: Tue Nov 04, 2014 9:56 pm
Bryan calls me to tell me one of his neighbors has had it with his "old" snow blower. It stopped working last winter, he got it fixed, then it stopped working again. His next door neighbor was literally going to scrap it. Fortunately Bryan got my name in the hat first so I had first dibs. Went up to pick it up after work today. BTW, the trans cooler lines held up in the Ranger. Not sure how much fluid was lost but I didn't even check the level and I probably put close to 200 miles on it.
It fit into the Ranger with the cap, after we removed the chute and handle, which wasn't too bad. I do have a flat washer left over...
Turns out this is not an old machine, and looks to be a pretty nice model. Not every feature you can get in a snow blower today but nicer than anything I've used. 2 stage. 6 forward speeds, 2 reverse. Remote chute angle crank. Electric start (AC powered). Light. 26" swath. 7.75hp B&S engine with OHV (fancy).
I pulled the cord and the engine's not seized. Then I primed it a few times and tried to start it. Nothing. But when I primed it, it sounded like I was just moving air, not fuel.
Curiosity got the better of me and I decided to pull the air intake housing (I'd say air cleaner but it only has a screen, which is also common - no dust is really possible to ingest, and water is not generally compatible with air filters - snow blowers get wet).
Closer inspection revealed a pretty major issue! The primer bulb hose had broken away from the carb! I was, in fact, moving air.
One from my phone: I also checked the oil and it looked low. Maybe it has a low level cut off?
Then I over filled the oil. Or Ed did. The drain cap was stuck to the drain pipe extension so I ended up pulling that right out of the block to drain some oil. Incidentally, there was a coating of oil all over the back of the machine, and that drain pipe was not that tight. That is probably where the oil went. Hopefully he never ran it out of oil.
My original plan was actually to use starting fluid to see if it was a fuel or spark issue. So after the oil adventure, I misted the air screen with some spray, choked it, pulled the cord and....fired right up. Then it stayed running. I didn't even add gas. The light even came right on.
So next step was to see if I could fix the primer hose. I pulled the broken end off the carb nipple and shoved the remainder of the hose onto the barb. This still resulted in pumping air.
Better pic from my phone, maybe (if your criteria is number of spiders): See that white plastic thing in the hose? It's actually a very small T and the third end seemed to be leaking all the air, and not priming fuel. So I disconnected that whole plastic T, and plugged the black hose directly into the carb. That seemed to work because I started it again and when I primed it, the engine actually started to die for a moment, as they do when you squirt gas into a running engine. The bulb also has more resistance now (because it's moving fuel). So that seems fixed.
I tried the auger/screw and that seemed to work. What DOES still seem to be broken is the speed selector. No matter what speed I select (or direction), it always seems to be stuck in the same forward speed. I did reconnect the linkage when I installed the handle so something may be up internally. Or it doesn't matter. But I'd like speed selection. That will be for another time. For now, this was a huge win and I now look forward to both snow and a larger driveway in the future.
It fit into the Ranger with the cap, after we removed the chute and handle, which wasn't too bad. I do have a flat washer left over...
Turns out this is not an old machine, and looks to be a pretty nice model. Not every feature you can get in a snow blower today but nicer than anything I've used. 2 stage. 6 forward speeds, 2 reverse. Remote chute angle crank. Electric start (AC powered). Light. 26" swath. 7.75hp B&S engine with OHV (fancy).
I pulled the cord and the engine's not seized. Then I primed it a few times and tried to start it. Nothing. But when I primed it, it sounded like I was just moving air, not fuel.
Curiosity got the better of me and I decided to pull the air intake housing (I'd say air cleaner but it only has a screen, which is also common - no dust is really possible to ingest, and water is not generally compatible with air filters - snow blowers get wet).
Closer inspection revealed a pretty major issue! The primer bulb hose had broken away from the carb! I was, in fact, moving air.
One from my phone: I also checked the oil and it looked low. Maybe it has a low level cut off?
Then I over filled the oil. Or Ed did. The drain cap was stuck to the drain pipe extension so I ended up pulling that right out of the block to drain some oil. Incidentally, there was a coating of oil all over the back of the machine, and that drain pipe was not that tight. That is probably where the oil went. Hopefully he never ran it out of oil.
My original plan was actually to use starting fluid to see if it was a fuel or spark issue. So after the oil adventure, I misted the air screen with some spray, choked it, pulled the cord and....fired right up. Then it stayed running. I didn't even add gas. The light even came right on.
So next step was to see if I could fix the primer hose. I pulled the broken end off the carb nipple and shoved the remainder of the hose onto the barb. This still resulted in pumping air.
Better pic from my phone, maybe (if your criteria is number of spiders): See that white plastic thing in the hose? It's actually a very small T and the third end seemed to be leaking all the air, and not priming fuel. So I disconnected that whole plastic T, and plugged the black hose directly into the carb. That seemed to work because I started it again and when I primed it, the engine actually started to die for a moment, as they do when you squirt gas into a running engine. The bulb also has more resistance now (because it's moving fuel). So that seems fixed.
I tried the auger/screw and that seemed to work. What DOES still seem to be broken is the speed selector. No matter what speed I select (or direction), it always seems to be stuck in the same forward speed. I did reconnect the linkage when I installed the handle so something may be up internally. Or it doesn't matter. But I'd like speed selection. That will be for another time. For now, this was a huge win and I now look forward to both snow and a larger driveway in the future.