Got my first snowblower

If you're interested, I have a couple of threads on going through an engine and rebuilding some items on Craftsman snowblowers here: Restorationmen Forum Project How To's

Couple of things to note - I recommend using a brass wire brush on the piston and valves to clean off carbon. They won't scratch or cut like steel wire brushes do.
Check out any gear oil you put into the auger gearbox. You have a bronze gear in there and some of the GL5 oils will attack the metal. You want GL4 or (I can't remember the name) GL5 that doesn't attack bronze. Many manufacturers recommend using 30 weight oil so check what the mfg recommends.

Good luck and congrats. Looks like you have a good machine there.
 
Sorry I haven't posted lately. HCBPH, I looked over your threads and they are very interesting. Makes me wish I had more tools for better repairs :)

I thought I would pull out the snowblower since it's sat since the lats time I ran it. I was going to check out the electric start on it for giggles. I couldn't get it started though. I checked and there was gas but the plug was dry. After about 10-15 minutes of pulling and tinkering I checked gas again and realized there was only enough to barely cover the bottom. I added more and it fired right up. After re-adjusting the carb, I "drove" it around until it just died. I went to start it and it's completely seized. I cannot get any movement at all on the recoil or the PTO shaft. I heard no banging/scraping or any unusual sound prior to seizure, it just stopped. I'm wondering if I ran the engine too lean or something. Even now, 24 hours later, it's still seized. I was kind of hoping it was temperature-related.

I've heard of people putting MMO in the spark plug hole but I don't really feel like buying that just for this. How about some 10W30 or tranny fluid?
 
An update on the seized engine. I sprayed PB Blaster in the sparkplug hole and in the intake/exhaust ports to get at the valves & guides. Let it soak for 2 days and still no luck. Today I pulled the recoil off and got a ratchet & socket with a 8' steel tube and used leverage to rotate the engine. She turned! Rotated it a few times and it seems like everything is moving properly but I'll have to get a light and look in the plug hole. The engine is now free enough to turn with the recoil start but it seems stiffer than before.
 
Would the Tecumseh hm80 on my John Deere 826 snowblower also have points? Or not here's the model and serial.
Model: Hm80-155013f
Serial: 91940

Sent from my iPod touch using LMF
 
Mwh0428 said:
Would the Tecumseh hm80 on my John Deere 826 snowblower also have points? Or not here's the model and serial.
Model: Hm80-155013f
Serial: 91940

Sent from my iPod touch using LMF
Click to expand...

It would be best if you created your own thread but I'll still try to help you :) Looking at this:
Parts and Diagrams for Tecumseh HM80-155013F
It looks like it doesn't have points. BUT, the one closest to mine also said it didn't have points but mine does. Can you give an age on yours? Perhaps a picture to help determine?

You could also try to look at the flywheel with the starter removed. If the magnet is inside the flywheel then you most likely have points. If it's on the outside, you most likely have a CDI coil.
 
Nate, glad to see you got it running, not happy to hear about siezing. Now that you have it free, I would try this. (I am assuming that you have a 30W or 10W-30 oil in it)
Remove the spark plug and put some light weight oil in the cylinder. ( spraying oils like Power-lube, WD-40, fogging oil, etc. Will do find). Pull the engine over about 10-15 time, no plug or compression. We want to coat and lube the cylinder walls. Install spart plug, and start engine at a low speed. While it is running, at low speed, open the oil fill tube and set the cap on top. If it does not bounce up/down that is a good sign. It means that you have not scored the cylinder too bad. Run the engine at low speed for about 15 minutes and shut off. Repeat after cooling down for at least an hour. If the engine does not show signs of laboring or running hot, you may have gotten lucky and saved it. MWH----no points.
 
Rivets said:
Nate, glad to see you got it running, not happy to hear about siezing. Now that you have it free, I would try this. (I am assuming that you have a 30W or 10W-30 oil in it)
Remove the spark plug and put some light weight oil in the cylinder. ( spraying oils like Power-lube, WD-40, fogging oil, etc. Will do find). Pull the engine over about 10-15 time, no plug or compression. We want to coat and lube the cylinder walls. Install spart plug, and start engine at a low speed. While it is running, at low speed, open the oil fill tube and set the cap on top. If it does not bounce up/down that is a good sign. It means that you have not scored the cylinder too bad. Run the engine at low speed for about 15 minutes and shut off. Repeat after cooling down for at least an hour. If the engine does not show signs of laboring or running hot, you may have gotten lucky and saved it. MWH----no points.
Click to expand...

I had the carb and exhaust off so I decided to put some 10W 30 down the hole. Well, long story short, it's everywhere now :) I was tempted to take the shroud and head off before but now I have a reason to. It seemed to turn over easier after adding the oil. I have some other projects to work on so this will sit for a while until a rainy day where I feel like disassembling it again.
 
After 3.5 months I'm back! Had a lot of other small engine works and business stuff to deal with. Finally had a chance to pull the snowblower out from the back of the barn and pull the head on it. For those that don't want to read the other pages, here's a brief history:

Bought the snowblower for $75. Rebuilt the carb with all new parts, new fuel line & primer line, new spark plug, cleaned the piston & valves, and gapped the points. It ran extremely rough when I first started it, found out that it didn't like the stock 2-turns out on the mixture screw and ran great with about 1/2 turn out. Ran like this for a while and I put it away for storage. Weeks later I decided to pull it out and fire it up for the hell of it. Couldn't get it started no matter what I tried (speed adjustments, carb adjustments) then I realized that while it looked like it had gas in the tank, it wasn't enough to fill up the carb. Topped that off and it started great. Once I got the carb re-tuned, I started losing power for a second or two and then the engine just stopped. Went to restart it and the recoil wouldn't budge no matter how hard I pulled. I shoved it back in the barn and left it. I even tried pulling the recoil start the next day when the engine was dead cold, no movement at all. Got a wild hair another day and came back, pulled the recoil off and found a socket to fit the nut on the flywheel, put it on a ratchet and put a 6' pipe on the ratchet and it started turning pretty easily. Putting the recoil back on, it was still tough to turn but at least it turned. I put some 10W30 down the spark plug hole and after making a mess it seems to turn easier but not quite as easy as it used to.

Where I'm at today;
After pulling the head, I took pictures and felt the cylinder wall. Feels smooth to me but there are marks on it. Looking at old pictures, the cylinder wall looks pretty much exactly as it did before the seizure.
Here's a before seizure picture:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/464376/small_engine/Bolens Snowblower/Pictures/DSCF0258.JPG
And today:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/464376/small_engine/Bolens Snowblower/Pictures/DSCF1009.JPG

Moving the PTO, I see no slop in the rotation of it corresponding to the piston and valves. Putting the piston at TDC and trying to move it, it seems to have the very very faintest movement, just like it did before the seizure.

I haven't tried to start it yet. Is there anything I should be concerned about before trying? Is it possible it seized somewhere on the crankshaft or connecting rod? Perhaps the oil just burned out of the cylinder with a bad mixture and that caused the seizure?
 
Nate

It's entirely possible it's not the cylinder that was your issue. There have been issues with 8-10 hp Tecumseh's blowing the rod out by overreving. It's possible your issue could be on the bottom end.
It's entirely possible you have a loose rod bolt, something in the crankcase that got in the gear for the cam etc.
If it was mine, I'd pull the head again. with the piston as close to TDC as I could get it, I'd see how much play there is in the crank before you feel any movement. I'm not sure what the specs are and most times I do it by hand, but if total on the crank is moved more than 1 fin of the flywheel, I'd suspect something internal is going bad (like the bottom of the connecting rod). Unfortunately that's a disassemble the whole thing situation. If that checks out, I'd drain the oil and look for anything metalic and use a light (after tipping it) to see if anything foreign was visible in the crankcase.
IMO your cylinder looks reasonable based on what I can see, looks like it's more the crosshatch pattern from honing the cylinder.

Let us know what happens. Good luck
 
Thanks for replying :) Yea, I can definitely see the crosshatch pattern from a hone job moreso than any of the vertical marks. I've seen badly marked cylinders with visible and feelable groves but this cylinder is smooth, I can't feel anything.

When I had the head off, I did rotate the PTO by hand and look for any play between it, the piston and valves and I couldn't see any at all. However, I didn't have the piston at TDC when I did that, it was about halfway up the cylinder and I rotated the PTO in both directions several times.

I think my issue might have been oil. I checked the level now and I couldn't see any in the little hole/recess that you pour into. I drained a bit out and it looked pretty fresh, not black but not see-through either. What came out had no metallic shavings or specks in it. I put the plug back in and filled it up with oil, putting more in than what came out. I might have been low on oil when it seized, I'm not sure how that would have happened. Second, I cannot get my carb running right. The main mixture screw HAS to be all the way in (bottomed out) before the engine will even try to run. With it all the way in and the idle screw 1/2 turn in one direction from default (can't remember which way off the top of my head) it seems to run ok but has hesitation and doesn't feel smooth at higher RPM. I might have been low on oil and had a bad mixture that burned the oil out of the cylinder creating a lack of lube and boom, seizure?

I'll keep fussing with my carb. I bought a kit for it before the seizure and it looks like the new main needle is different than the old one but even putting the old one in makes no difference. I might just put all the old carb metal pieces back in and see if that helps. I know my carb is probably the cleanest one I own now and I did the timing, points and spark exactly as was stated in the Tecumseh manual.

The nights are getting colder... a certain urgency is coming :)
 
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