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Resurrecting an old MTD Snowflite

2K views 9 replies 8 participants last post by  laser3kw 
#1 ·
I pulled a old Snowflite 8/26 blower out of the barn at my folks house this year. Rumor is that it ran in the 80s, but hasn't been touched since.

Long story shorter here. I finally got it to run reasonably well with carb rebuild and oil change. Governor seems to be completely non-responsive, so I hard-working the throttle to the lever. This thing runs pretty good, and throws snow fairly well for 1/2 throttle.

Clearing my driveway last week, cruising right along. About 5 feet from being finished, the motor backfires and dies.


Now, here's the problem(s). Motor turns over by pull rope ok. Has good spark, and I can hear it coughing out the carb. Has no interest in running, though. Also, the e-start (working perfectly) suddenly doesn't work any longer. The pinion gear on the starter doesn't want to fully engaged the flywheel, instead, it just wants to grind.

Ideas are needed, before I give up on this thing!
 
#2 ·
on your starter issue, there's a gear that slides forward to engage the starter ring on the flywheel. It may just need some cleanup of the shaft and some lubrication. It also needs to insure that the 4 bolts holding the starter on the block are tight and aligned correctly. Wouldn't hurt to check to insure that the starter gear and the starter ring aren't damaged.
 
#3 ·
Sounds like you may have sheered the flywheel key, Just a guess however but it can happen on a good backfire
 
#4 · (Edited)
:welcome: to SBF Raccoonjoe

The electric starter problem would be a separate issue since you say it does turn over with the rope. Might just be the shaft the gear slides on is rusty or sticky and the gear can't fully engage the flywheel ring gear.

Here is a show and tell on the flywheel key.
 
#5 ·
Thanks for the responses guys! Wasn't sure I was going to have any luck.


The flywheel key was my first thought as well. Pulled the flywheel off, key is still intact. Reassembled, checked and found a nice blue spark.


The starter seems to be a odd issue. The Bendix is shooting out and spinning like it's supposed to, but it seems to have a lot of sideways play at extension. Seems like it can't hold enough pressure against the flywheel, and so it just grinds.

Is there some sort of adjustment in the starter that needs to happen, or do I need to shim out the back of the starter? It was working well, until the machine stalled out
 
#6 ·
Update!

I put a compression tester on the old girl today, and got just a little movement out of the gauge by yanking the pull cord several times.

I'm not sure what this means. Will the motor spin fast enough to get a good reading on the pull cord?

I've got to get this electric starter issue figured out....
 
#9 ·
I've gotten around 35-50 psi on my Tecumsehs, when using the pull-starter (higher with the electric start). So if "a little movement out of the gauge" is 5 psi, you're probably in trouble. If it's 30+, it should hopefully be enough to start.

I pull the cord until the gauge stops rising. My gauge has a checkvalve so that the reading climbs a little more with each compression stroke, until it maxes out at a final reading. My gauge came with a cylindrical adapter/extension maybe 2-3" long. If possible, don't use something like that, just screw the gauge's hose directly into the spark plug hole. Any extra volume before the checkvalve will give an artificially-low reading.
 
#10 · (Edited)
If you pull the spark plug out and put your finger over the hole, does it suck and puff when you pull it over?
could be it hung a valve or maybe a valve seat popped out.
If it pulls over easily, with little resistance, it could be bad. I had a unit a couple of years ago the broke the rod. It kicked a hole right behind the starter. Maybe yours did similar and, instead of a hole, knocked the starter out of alignment?
 
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