Had a hand-me-down Toro 824, 1988 vintage. Worked okay. Was really eating belts near its endgame and had to rewire around all the handle-mounted killswitches. Carb gummed up half the time despite sta-bil. Okay it was a heap.
Was out blowing last weekend and the wheel drive started acting funny: It wouldn't reverse, two of the three forward speeds worked, but at about the same speed. Tore into it.
It's supposed to have two belt driven pulleys with a 1/2" gap between: front pulley runs the auger, rear goes into the transmission. A rubber wheel rubs one side of the back of the rear pulley at different distances from center for different effective ratios. Well, a weld broke and the pulley busted off its central axle and the spring-loaded wheel pushed it into the front, auger pulley. Incredibly the two meshed and blowing was carrying on as usual with a semblance of forward motion... and a somewhat concerning noise under the belt cover.
Even though it's 21 years old I'll call this a design defect: Having a rubber tire load one side of the disc/pulley was causing metal fatigue at the weld. Started taking it apart then realized that even if I could weld it back together I don't have a jig to center the pulley and not have it wobble.
So I threw the pile of parts in a snowbank and went on craigslist. Found my dream* blower, a 1982ish bobcat with 24 inch cut (same) and 7 hp briggs engine with carb problems. Been without a pickup truck since october so I stuffed this thing in my saturn wagon with the seat down and the liftgate up. Clearance was tight, almost had to take the gas cap off to fit through the hatch.
Have the same carb on my generator so I figured I could borrow it if I had to order a carb off ebay or whatever.
Got the carb blown apart, had some crud in the main jet, forced it out with a little red tube on the end of a can of brake cleaner.
She's running fine now (knock wood) in fact it has more pep than any other 7 hp motor I've had! Almost like a "ringer". Flings the snow several times further... 30 feet instead of 7 feet, no kidding! I did a real half-baked job with the toro and had remnants that this bobcat swept up no problem. It even scraped down to pavement, I didn't know they could do that!!
Funny thing about the 'cat, I should get a picture, is the 2nd stage flappers parallel the tires. The engine & belts do too, 90 degrees off from "usual". The exhaust shoots straight at the operator and is LOUD.
Incidentally briggs recommends 30 weight, except if it's below freezing (do you think?) when they want 5w20.
*in my price range
Was out blowing last weekend and the wheel drive started acting funny: It wouldn't reverse, two of the three forward speeds worked, but at about the same speed. Tore into it.
It's supposed to have two belt driven pulleys with a 1/2" gap between: front pulley runs the auger, rear goes into the transmission. A rubber wheel rubs one side of the back of the rear pulley at different distances from center for different effective ratios. Well, a weld broke and the pulley busted off its central axle and the spring-loaded wheel pushed it into the front, auger pulley. Incredibly the two meshed and blowing was carrying on as usual with a semblance of forward motion... and a somewhat concerning noise under the belt cover.
Even though it's 21 years old I'll call this a design defect: Having a rubber tire load one side of the disc/pulley was causing metal fatigue at the weld. Started taking it apart then realized that even if I could weld it back together I don't have a jig to center the pulley and not have it wobble.
So I threw the pile of parts in a snowbank and went on craigslist. Found my dream* blower, a 1982ish bobcat with 24 inch cut (same) and 7 hp briggs engine with carb problems. Been without a pickup truck since october so I stuffed this thing in my saturn wagon with the seat down and the liftgate up. Clearance was tight, almost had to take the gas cap off to fit through the hatch.
Have the same carb on my generator so I figured I could borrow it if I had to order a carb off ebay or whatever.
Got the carb blown apart, had some crud in the main jet, forced it out with a little red tube on the end of a can of brake cleaner.
She's running fine now (knock wood) in fact it has more pep than any other 7 hp motor I've had! Almost like a "ringer". Flings the snow several times further... 30 feet instead of 7 feet, no kidding! I did a real half-baked job with the toro and had remnants that this bobcat swept up no problem. It even scraped down to pavement, I didn't know they could do that!!
Funny thing about the 'cat, I should get a picture, is the 2nd stage flappers parallel the tires. The engine & belts do too, 90 degrees off from "usual". The exhaust shoots straight at the operator and is LOUD.
Incidentally briggs recommends 30 weight, except if it's below freezing (do you think?) when they want 5w20.
*in my price range