Yup, after roughly 30 years of hard use each winter, the old Ariens snow blower kicked the bucket for good today.

Last time it snowed i was about two passes from being done and it began to act up like it was out of gas, i shut it down, pulled the gas cap, half a tank. Ok, start it back up, FIRE is licking out of the exhaust manifold like a flame thrower!

Not the first time Ive had this happen with a small engine

So, finally got around to messing with it today, pulled it apart, checked the carb, jet is clean, float operational, choke smooth, looks almost brand new in fact!
Pulled the plug and checked for spark- got nothing.
Pull the pull cord cover, hmm cooling fan shroud is damaged, cracked pretty decent. Wonder how long its been like that?
Pulled the flywheel off after marking the timing, points look old, condenser only 3 years old, some frayed wires etc.
I figured what the heck, lets replace the coil as it looks nearly original.
35 bucks later- everything is nearly back together annnnnnnnd- one of the shrouds bolts strips. Go to the caddy, get a bigger one, done!
Pull the cord, cough cough cough, pull again, feel lots of compression, then bam. pulled the pull cord right out of the machine!

Sigh

So again i pull it apart, re hook it all up. Main Cam bolt is stripped on the shaft...
Find a new one, put it on, tighten to torque spec, pull, and nothing. not even a cough.
so pulled the plug again. No spark.
ran over all the wiring, some needed replacing, did that, No spark.
so i checked the coil and gear again.

looks like something got spun into the whole works at some point and did some nasty damage to the fins and the workings.

so after a day of working on it Ive given up and the local hardware store has a monstrous snow blower with a 6 inch bigger deck, chain drive system, and 8 horse Tecumseh and even a light with electric start. Grand total of 250 bucks. 50 less than i spent on the current heap of scrap metal.

Lucky me its tax time, im getting to scrap out a water heater, a house full of copper wire, about 100lbs of copper fittings and tubes, and the old snow blower and that should rake in enough money for the new blower and the gas to fill it and my truck for the scrap run, that is if gas doesn't jump another 25 cents overnight

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quote Originally posted by pontiackid86: Also what does yoga and farming have to do with eachother?

Having NO snowblower experience, but lots of lawnmower time, I'll suggest this:
Many small engines get scrapped because of rust on the flywheel magnets.
Those are the bits of laminated steel embedded in the aluminum flywheel.
They are supposed to almost touch the coil on every revolution, generating an electrical impulse.
Corrosion prevents that from happening.
Clean the metal on the coil and the flywheel with fine sandpaper, spray with WD 40 to prevent future corrosion, and the engine will usually have a hot enough spark to start again.

Having said that, I think your problem may be a bit more serious.


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Drive safely!

[This message has been edited by NEPTUNE (edited 02-09-2011).]

My Ariens snowblower which his the same vintage is still running strong. I think the thing may actually be older than me. I want another snowblower but this one just keeps running well. The good ol Tecumseh HS40 engine is a bear.

Ariens makes good equipment.