Craftsman 26 Drift King 3 stage pneumatic tires

So I just acquired this old beast when I bought my home. What I have found out about it is it is from early 1960s or possibly late 50s. I put some fresh gas and a plug and it started on second pull couldn't believe it. With the handle released auger moves and it tries to move forward it only has one handle to control auger and drive. It don't matter if it is in neutral or a gear it tries to inch forward. I have not had time to put it in the service position and pull the skid plate off yet. I am trying to find a service manual or some diagrams for this thing but can't find one anywhere. I want to recondition this unit and bring it back to full functionality. Any help would be appreciated I will post some pics of it later tonight.


Thanks

Post a picture of it. If that's the one I think it is there's no deadman on the drive or auger. I rebuilt 2 stage unit variation of that the other year. There were some parts availability issues with it, but got through it machining some of the parts myself. After all that, I wouldn't sell it someone with little kids and no one else wanted it. IIRC it had the precursor to Tecumseh engine (Larson maybe?) but other than the friction disk and a shaft most other parts were findable. Even those I modified or made.

If this is like my Craftsman Drift Breaker (can't tell without a picture) a single lever on the right handlebar activates both idler pulleys for the drive and for the augers.
You would see that mechanism by removing the belt cover to reveal the idler pulleys.
So how would I make MY machine crawl forward or keep the auger spinning?
It sounds like the handlebar lever cable is a little tight and needs to be adjusted.
On my driftbreaker, you can adjust that cable by adjusting it where it meets the flat plate just below the handlebars.
The cable has a thread and lock-nut which can be turned one way or the other to make the cable tighter or looser.
Another possibility is that you have one or more springs missing that try to return the idler pulleys to "off" when you let go of the handle lever.
If the cable is too tight, the idler pulleys do not back off far enough from the belts and therefore the drive may creep forward and/or the augers may turn even when the handle is released.

However, none of the above explains why it should try to move when in neutral.
How would I make MY machine try to crawl even when the lever is in neutral?
Again, if your machine is like mine, I could explain THAT by saying that the two angled gears (that "connect" the gear shift stick to the transmission) are lined up on the wrong teeth.
If that's the case, even though the lever is saying it is in "neutral"... it has not actually put the transmission into the proper neutral position.
To see the two angled gears you will need to remove the belly plate (if you have one... mine doesn't).

Here are a few photos to show all the above... I can only hope that they relate to your machine.
Please post some pictures of your machine.

My photos:https://photos.app.goo.gl/Bx78brO5KLPbdc6f1

Finally, if your machine is somewhat similar to mine, I have lots of reference links in this thread (especially post #14)
My Driftbreaker: https://www.snowblowerforum.com/forum...ftbreaker.html

I think some early Drift Breakers had a centrifugal clutch.
Example-HERE

I have had two older Craftsman driftbuster or breakers over the years and both had centrifugal clutch. They were very well built and to me they looked like working artwork.

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I suspect that blower is similar to a 536.90515 I once had. Pretty sure it was an early AMF designed unit. It's got an auger control that's a lever that you give a quarter turn to engage or disengage the auger. The drive though is where it gets really scary. There's multiple speeds and you move the shifter to that speed and push it forward and it's in-gear. There's no dead-man on this one, once in gear whether you hold onto it or not, it's going to go on it's own till you either disengage the drive or it runs out of gas. It's a friction disk drive, the 3d stage has canted disks on the shaft instead of paddles and it's likely to have a Larson motor on it.


I rebuilt that one I had and couldn't sell it to anyone that felt comfortable with them having. I offered it to a friends son that wanted something to do a little blowing with, he turned it down because it scared him (I think) too much. I ended up parting it out, saving what I thought I might use later and the rest went to the metal recycler.


PS if I'm right, it's a 50's-60's designed machine

I think this is a close relative of the OP machine. Notice there's no hand controls on it. Hopefully that's enough shots to give an idea if I've got it right or not.

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Ready to help just waiting on those photos to confirm it's a DriftBreaker.