Craftsman 30" snowblower with mouse infestation

[LeakySeals]

Fired up my expensive 2 year old Craftsman 30" snowblower for the first time this year. It started smoking profusely and the idle was fluctuating bad..

I found what was smoking.



Maybe it was payback for this..



Did one of the critters get into the intake somehow? Assume there's no air filter. It was running great when I put it away. now the idle is up and down with a nasty snapping backfire..

 

[Balrog006]

I had an older Craftsman model that had the same infestation inside the lower housing where the belts and clutch plate are. It cleaned up well, but all I can suggest is to keep looking thru yours and get all the bits and pieces out and then hope it runs better, good luck.

 

[Rand]

sounds like you sucked up some junk.. or bad gas in carb.

 

[SHOZ]

I've had mice eat the insulation off the coil wire.

 

[BrianF]

That all looks far to familar..... same place on mine as well. Mine ran fine but thankfully I inspected the thing before ever firing it up and avoided a possible melt down. If I recall there is some springs and or levers related to the governor nearby that can be effected by all that mouse house. I had to be careful removing all that [censored] as not to damage anything.

Clean it out and then try it. Hopefully those SOB's did not chew on anything vital.

 

[JTK]

Whelp.. I guess if there's any positives, atleast this wasn't on a V-twin or horizontally opposed twin. Getting the tin work and shrouding off of some of those is a bloody knuckle horrible time.