Snowblower blade not turning!! help!

[amateurfishing]

Blade stopped turning on second pass monday,neighbor said to check pins and those are both good, cable from handle still has normal tension also. Its a larger 2 stage yard machine, thx!!

[Hoey]

Broken Belt?

[amateurfishing]

Also there was a jumping or banging sound for 2 min right before this happened.

[BoxMN]

Another potential - There might be two roll pins in the second stage - the one that actually throws the snow through the chute - that could be sheared off. I think the first augers might still turn if that is the case though. You can tell if that is it because the round secondary piece with just spin on the shaft. If it is these, I think they are usually 1/4" pins and usually 1.5" long, can get them from any hardware store.

Just use a bolt (1/4" should work, but a slightly smaller metric size works great) and a long socket extension through the chute to push the old broken pieces out, hitting with hammer, then push the new ones in, again with socket extension and hammer.

[BartmanMN]

Also there was a jumping or banging sound for 2 min right before this happened.

You're not missing a cat are you?

j/k

[RebelSS]

Is it a belt drive, or a wheel disc friction type? Sounds like one of those blew...what brand?

[amateurfishing]

Yard machine by MT,2 stage 22" path

[CaptainMusky]

Start with searching out where the belt is located that engages the augers. If that isnt blown then I suspect that a pulley broke off or something. See that a lot with some of the less expensive snowblowers.

[amateurfishing]

Sheer pins all accounted for (2 auger blade, 2 fan blade)

Where would belt be? Between chute & motor on top?

[Dragonsm]

In between the engine and the auger on top, there should be a plastic shroud attached on top. Remove the shroud and there should probably be two belts in there. One engages the auger, one engages the drive system of the snowblower. Take a good look at the belts...if there is a lot of black fine belt material in the housing, it's time to replace the belts.

[amateurfishing]

Thanks so much everyone!!! Belt it is! Thanks for helping me narrow it down so fast and tell me where to look. I am mechanically challenged but this looks possible from some you tube vids.

[RebelSS]

As mentioned, on yours, it's under the black plastic shroud between the engine and the front auger housing. If it's on the pulleys, and you can tug on it, start it up, engage it, and see if it turns. If it does, next step....tilt auger forward, (turned off, of course)and take off the 8 (I think) bolts that hold the curved steel bottom cover pan in place. You'll see a friction wheel that contacts a drive wheel, check that to make sure it's contacting the drive wheel, and that the rubber did not rip off....go from there. Has to be one of those, in addition to the two sets of shear pins. Good luck!

WHOOPS! We posted at the same time...good deal! Belt replacement is easy!

[Dragonsm]

If you are replacing the auger belt and the other one hasn't been changed, they aren't to expensive and just as easy to change them both.

The friction disc RebelSS isn't to bad to change either if you ever get to that point.....unless of course the rims of your snowblower are seized onto the axle. Been down that road once, and I try and make it a habit each year to remove the rims from the axle and slap a little grease on the axle and rim so if I ever run into a friction disc issue or needing to change a tire on a rim (Yep, battled that one too with the seized rims) I don't have to fight it near as much.

Once you stand back and look at the mechanics of a snowblower and how they "work"....they really are a pretty simple machine for the most part.

One other thing, if you purchased the unit used or can't find the manual, you can go to MTD's online site and pull off a PDF copy of the manual which will also give pretty good directions on belt replacement along with other maintenance.

Good luck with the belts!

Steve