Who's tuning up their snowblower yet?

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I must not be the only nutter out there tuning up their snowblower. A neighbor was doing the same thing last weekend. Mine got the rubber "impeller mod" tonight". Anybody else dug theirs out and tinkered yet?
 
This last weekend! Got an old snowblower from my sister that hadn't run in years. It's all ready to go. Bring on the snow!
 
I did mine at the end of the season and it is GTG. However it has come to my attention that I screwed up installing one of the shear pins that broke during the last use of the machine during the season. I will have to dig it out and do both shear pins again to be safe.
 
I always do mine at the end of the previous season, before I put it away. All it needs is fresh gas and it's ready to go.
 
Not me. Still enjoying my new ski boat. And will continue to do so til my first case of hypothermia. The snowblower can wait a while.
 
Originally Posted By: R80RS
I always do mine at the end of the previous season, before I put it away. All it needs is fresh gas and it's ready to go.


Same here. Oil gets changed, bare metal gets painted, engine gets fogged, piston to TDC, and carb & tank get drained as soon as Spring hits.
 
My John Deere has the mowing deck on it now, I put the snowblower on once the leaves are done. Usually around Thanksgiving weekend.

My 1978 Toro 826 snowblower is pretty much always on stand by. Its parked in the garage with a full tank of gas with Sta-Bil in the fuel. It starts on two pulls no matter what temperature. I planned on doing a full restore this summer, but only had time to fix the rusty areas and tune up the engine. I did the impeller mod as well. This machine I bought last year from the second owner. It came with the original purchase receipt and even receipts for oil changes from the original owner. I changed out the head gasket while doing my tune-up and sure enough the cross hatching was still in the bore of the 8hp Briggs. Not bad for a 36 year old machine.
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Once it gets closer to winter I'll change the oil with some PP 5w30 and change the gearbox oil with whatever I have leftover from the Jeep.

As much as I like the John Deere, sitting on the tractor gets a bit old with the snow blowing back in your face. I enjoy using the Toro a bit more since I can stay moving and keep warm. I use the tractor for the driveway, and the Toro for the sidewalks. I do my neighbor's driveway and sidewalks as well.
 
Snow? Do you mean that white stuff that falls from the sky when it gets cold outside? I've seen the pictures but with Photo-Shop you can't believe everything you see.
 
I knocked my snow shovel over when I was getting the push broom out of the garage over the weekend. I set the snow shovel back up in its place. It should be good to go.
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They say its going to be a bad winter, and I say bring it. I loved running a snow blower when I lived in upstate NY. Sometimes I wish I could justify owning one now in VA, but I just can't.
 
I've had one in pieces for the last couple of years. Just drug it out to reassemble and hopefully get going to sell off. I have another that I need to take the auger gearbox apart and put the right grease in it. It was rebuilt last winter but I could not find the right grease in time so I just filled it with some regular gun grease.
 
Yep, I just threw $130+ in parts on my recently purchased $100 Ariens SS522 back-up machine. New wheels, new scraper and new auger assembly. Had to grind off the 3 bolts that held the old, pretty much non-existent scraper in place.
 
I've been thinking about the snowchuckers, but haven't unearthed them from the pile of junk that's accumulated on top of them over the summer.

I have one in my garage that needs an impeller kit, as it's only a 5hp with a short chute so it struggles at the end of winter to get the snow on top of the EOD mounds. My other machine is a Toro 824 Powershift, and that beast will throw the snow from the street all the way to my front door 50 feet away with the impeller that it left the factory with. I think if I put a kit on that one, I could put all the snow in my yard in the neighbor's yard across the street! He'd love that.

Both machines I picked up on the cheap, so they were already pre-rusted so I don't really worry about their appearance. I just clean them off after each use and try to keep the rust from getting any worse than it is now. I had a 1 year old machine prior to these two, and it pained me to see how it was rusting even with all the care I gave it to try to stop the corrosion. Kind of like when a car gets old enough one doesn't care anymore about shopping carts running into it.
 
Just thinking about the same thing last week......getting to the point where I can't stand the thought of snow any more!
Did you bolt your rubbers on the trailing edge of the impeller or the leading edge?
 
Originally Posted By: mmavet
Just thinking about the same thing last week......getting to the point where I can't stand the thought of snow any more!
Did you bolt your rubbers on the trailing edge of the impeller or the leading edge?


I put the rubber on the leading edge. My little Ariens moves a lot more air with those paddles in place, almost like a table fan on high when standing in front of it. Hope that translates into more snow removed.
 
Last spring I Sta-Bil'd the remaining gas, greased and put a little MMO in the spark plug hole and pulled the B&S engine over a few times before putting it in a corner at the back of the garage. The 28" Ariens should be good to go in November or December.

Oil was changed towards the end of last season ... switched from "whatever" oil I used because I had on hand while the machine was breaking-in to Yeti Blood ... Chevron 0W-30. I won't change that out for at least 25 hours (maybe all of this coming winter).

I DID just get a new spark plug for the B&S engine ... a NGK BKR5E ... that's their V-Power plug. Hoping it will give a touch more power than the Champion Q12YC it will replace.

I'd like to add rubber shims to the auger but would really like to do it right with bolts and nuts, not just sheet metal screws. That means taking the impeller out/off. THAT looks like a project! I also haven't been able to find material for the shims yet.
 
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