I've got a 2000-ish Northstar 27" Dual Stage Snowblower with 9.5hp (I think, might be 8hp or 8.5hp) Tecumseh snow king engine. These were sold by Northern Tool and made by Murray. For the past 5 years it has becoming more and more of a pain to operate and I keep telling my wife we are getting an Ariens Professional 28 next year lol. I figured I'd dig in and diagnose the snow blower to see if I could give it it's last chance. I think I may have fixed it....darn it!
Symptoms:
The shaft that the friction disc slides on was also rusty which explains why it would freeze up and was hard to shift. Sanded it down and put some red tacky grease all over it. Also greased up the gears and chains in there. What do you know...shifts great now!
Even though I put a new auger/impeller belt on last year I never properly adjusted the pulley tension and it was way off, the belt was no doubt slipping. This probably slowed down the impeller/auger when trying to move through the heavy wet stuff.
Lastly, I noticed that the impeller blades had a TON of clearance between the impeller blades and the housing. Probably 3/8"....maybe even 7/16" in some spots? I installed one of those "Impeller Kits" that adds a heavy reinforced piece of rubber to the impeller blade to reduce the clearance.
Put some fresh Synthetic M1 EP 5W-30 in there gave it a spin. I haven't had a chance to try it in the snow but I have a feeling it is going to work waaaaaaay better than it did before. Ugh. All it costed me was a new container of tacky red grease and a quart of oil...
Symptoms:
- Doesn't like "just a little snow". If I'm snow blowing 2" of fresh snow it will only fart it out about 3ft. I have to run at maximum forward speed to scoop up enough snow so to load up the impeller so it can really shoot it out.
- Throwing distance has become worse and worse. Even with a good load of fluffy snow it can only shoot it like 10-15ft feet.
- After some use the transmission starts to get jerky. I find myself pushing the snowblower more than the snowblower it moving itself.
- The transmission gear shifter sometimes gets frozen if it hasn't been used in a while. After a couple of swears and kicks it usually frees up.
- Can't handle dense, wet snow like snow banks. You have to go the perfect speed or it will clog. Even then it barely shoots the snow 3ft.
The shaft that the friction disc slides on was also rusty which explains why it would freeze up and was hard to shift. Sanded it down and put some red tacky grease all over it. Also greased up the gears and chains in there. What do you know...shifts great now!
Even though I put a new auger/impeller belt on last year I never properly adjusted the pulley tension and it was way off, the belt was no doubt slipping. This probably slowed down the impeller/auger when trying to move through the heavy wet stuff.
Lastly, I noticed that the impeller blades had a TON of clearance between the impeller blades and the housing. Probably 3/8"....maybe even 7/16" in some spots? I installed one of those "Impeller Kits" that adds a heavy reinforced piece of rubber to the impeller blade to reduce the clearance.
Put some fresh Synthetic M1 EP 5W-30 in there gave it a spin. I haven't had a chance to try it in the snow but I have a feeling it is going to work waaaaaaay better than it did before. Ugh. All it costed me was a new container of tacky red grease and a quart of oil...
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