(engine revving)
- Hey guys, welcome back.
Today I've got a snowblower in the shop here,
it's not blowing snow the way it should.
So what I wanna show you guys are two simple things
that you can do to your machine
without spending any money that most of the time
may make your blower blow like new again.
So I've got a Murray snowblower here,
I've got the belt cover off,
so if your machine's not blowing properly,
the first thing I recommend is take the belt cover off,
check the condition of your belt, this belt is still good,
and another thing you want to check is the tightness
of the auger belt when the auger lever
is depressed all the way down.
So I've got the auger lever down,
and if I look at the belt tension here,
it is very, very loose.
The tension is not good.
So what's happening is that the belt is slipping
on the pulley here.
Now, the quick and easy thing you can do to fix this problem
right away is if the,
either pulley is adjustable on your machine
is you can adjust it to get the tension back on the belt.
So to do this, grab a wrench, unscrew the nut,
or just loosen the nut that holds the idler pulley,
and then what you want to do is push the pulley forward
and tighten it up.
So when you adjust the idler pulley,
the more you push it forward that way,
the tighter the belt will be
when you depress the auger lever.
And the more you adjust it toward the back here
toward yourself,
the less tight the belt will be
when the auger lever is depressed.
Now, not every machine has an adjustable idler pulley.
The way you'll know if it's adjustable or not
is by checking behind the pulley here
to see if there's a slot for the pulley
to move with the bolt.
Now, as I said, not every machine has this slot.
Some of them it's just one hole
and the idler pulley sits there permanently
in that one position.
So what I'll do here is just move the pulley forward,
tighten up the nut,
and now when the auger lever is depressed,
the pulley is going to go further that way
to put more tension on the belt,
(pulley moving)
just as you see now.
And sometimes just doing that basic adjustment
is all you need to get your machine back in business.
Also, if the idler pulley on your snowblower
is nonadjustable,
you may have to replace the belt as well
and or adjust the auger cable.
So on this machine here to adjust the auger cable,
you would have to disconnect the cable
from the machine here,
and then what you would do is slide this
out of the spring hook here, so slide it all the way out.
Now I'm gonna hold one end with pliers,
I'm using a 716 syringe, I'm gonna turn in the nut.
So now when the lever is depressed,
it's going to add more tension to the belt.
And then after that, you just reconnect it.
And after that,
you'll see there's a lot less play in the cable.
And this will make the belt a lot tighter
when you depress the lever.
And what you want is just the happy medium here,
when it comes to tension, you don't want to overdo it.
If you overtime the cable,
over adjust the idler pulley what's going to happen
is when you release the auger lever,
the augers will still be turning
and that's a major safety hazard.
And on some areas and snowblowers as well,
the cable adjustment is very similar to the blower
I just showed you,
and it's usually the same for the drive
and the auger systems on your machine for the adjustments.
Now, some other machines have different adjustments
like the MTD machines, the newer ones.
I do have a video on that adjustment for those machines
and the link is in the video description.
So just a quick recap here for everybody,
your snowblower stops blowing once you get into heavy snow,
you're not sure what's going on.
Take the belt cover off.
If the auger belt idler pulley is adjustable,
then adjust it like I showed you.
If it's not adjustable,
then check the tension of your auger cable.
And if you've done those things
and it still doesn't wanna blow,
then make sure to check the belt as well,
and the share pins on the augers.
And most of the time,
this problem can be fixed without spending any money,
unless you end up needing a belt or some other parts.
So before you take your machine to a shop,
check all these things guys, because you can do it yourself.
Thanks again for watching.
Make sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram,
and you guys have a great day.
(engine revving)