Small Engine - Snow blower problem

[wayne petty]

nothing but problems...

a fan.. to circulate the heat...  blowing at the ceiling..  my apartment has gravity heater... i have a 1/3Hp direct drive 3 speed squirrel cage fan robbed from a swamp cooler decades ago.. that blows at the ceiling.. evens out the temp inversions...  and the cats can sharpen their claws in it.. WWWWWRRRRRRRRRRR...   they actually do...    belt drive squirrel cage fans robbed from old forced air furnaces.. work great...  hang them on the ceiling... sit them on the floor... i have one in storage out of a 5 ton furnace... i changed the pulley drive one hot summer day.. mom walked by in her maxi dress... it almost blew her off her feet..  i changed it back..

[chimp koose]

Check for a sheared key on the flywheel. You will have lots of spark just not when you need it.

[58 Yeoman]

Turns out the engine is toast.  I took it to a repair shop near where I used to live (forty miles away).  He said that the engine had had water in the gas.  That is strange, as the machine ran great the time I ran it a couple weeks ago, and I used the same can.  He also said that I must be using a plastic gas can, and the inside is deteriorating, as he found a lot of little white specks in the gas.

He sells Toro's, so I'll be buying a new 4 stroker from him (he's been in the business there for 35 years).   That will make the ONLY engine I have with a 2 stroke will be my chain saw.

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions.

[Land Yacht]

The 4 cycle should prove to be less problematic than the 2 cycle. My Crapsman w/Tecumseh 2 cycle just did the same thing as yours. I will drain out the carb, I'm expecting some water in there. I can't believe what new blowers are going for, I got mine out of the trash on "junk day".

[wayne petty]

by the way... anybody with a 2 stroke motor similar .. really should download the last link i posted above...

it is not an owners manual...

it is a down and dirty FULL fledged service manual.. on just the 2 stroke motors..    from the company above.. that i cannot think about how to spell...

how to take each part off and apart ... fix it and reinstall it .. then adjust it..

[taxpyer]

use gas stabiliser in all your seasonal motors,, (even your car if it sits several months) Two or four stroke

[58 Yeoman]

BTW, the guy showed me the piston through the exhaust port, and it had all kinds of gouges out of it. (did I post that already? )  It looked like I had run sand through it.  He had sold the last 4 cycle machine, so I bought another 2 cycle, one step up from the one he sold.  Wow...does that thing throw the snow!

My shop is 40' wide, and there was 5 to 6 inches of snow in front of it.  I started at one end, and the snow was thrown to the other end of the drive.  My wife used it on our last snowfall, and liked it; first time she's ever used a thrower.  No gas shut off or filter....sounds like something I might install on it.

[wayne petty]

perhaps a drain also..



i also noticed.. that they don't always have air filters...

i wonder if sand/ salt  could have been kicked up and ingested by the motor..

[Land Yacht]

I have picked up 3 2 cycle snowblowers people threw away, none of them used air filters. The idea I have heard is that the dust levels are so low when snow is on the ground that they are not needed. I didn't like that idea, so I built one using a piece of foam sandwiched between 2 big washers, couldn't get enough air through it, lacked power. A better design would have worked.

That gouging on the piston wall is a common failure on 2 cycle engines, they call it scoring. The causes are usually from running too lean. Lean will kill a 2cycle, they run hot, piston expands and tranfer of metal between it and the cylinder starts, compression falls and they no longer run. Having water in the gas may have leaned it out? Dirt ingestion will do they same thing but you can usually tell based on which side of the piston the damage is worse. I like the 2 cycles that still have the mixture screws on them so you can set them up just a tad rich for safety.

I hope mine isn't toast.

[Land Yacht]

Great Manual Wayne. I happen to have that one hardcopy. It's too bad Tecumseh went belly up a couple years ago, closed domestic plants in the midwest. Parts should be available, I have heard that Stens (aftermarket) took over replacement parts. I bought a 4 cycle Tecumseh for mini-bike about the time they were closing shop from Ebay, I wonder about the build quality, if they didn't take shortcuts putting it together, haven't run it yet.

[wayne petty]

one last picture..

for all those with snow blowers..  and dogs..

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_hVOW2U7K4-M/StvoOYS8OYI/AAAAAAABJ4g/_Wet8D6Q1Cw/s640/085.jpg


its worth the time to click...