This Snow Boss 500 was the first snowblower that I finally got around to fixing. It only took me three years. If you remember, I bought 5 snowblowers for a grand total of $6.00, so $1.20 each. And then, they sat.
Diagnosis
This snowblower appeared to be complete, but it would not turn over during the initial inspection. I was afraid that it might have a seized piston. Eventually, I was able to get it to break free by putting some penetrating oil in the plug hole and turning the flywheel with a wrench. Even though it had broken free, it wouldn’t complete an entire revolution. Something was stopping it, so I knew I had to open up the cylinder head to inspect the piston and valves.
Findings
What I found was a stuck exhaust valve. There was a bit of carbon on the head that I cleaned up, but nothing too major. I’m theorizing that this was preventing the flywheel from making a full revolution as the valve was stuck to the seat. At this point, I was confident that we could do a repair, so I ordered any remaining parts for this Snow Boss 500. Those parts amounted to:
- drive belt
- auger cable
- gearbox seals
- drive shaft bearings
- gasket set
And then, it sat some more. Life got in the way, and a few months had passed before I got another chance to work on this Snow Boss 500. I threw the engine back together and we were able to get it fired up pretty quickly. At this point, I wanted to clean up the cosmetics of the machine. I ended up disassembling the whole thing to ensure the drive gear was working correctly.
This video got super long so I decided to break it up into two separate ones. In the next video, we’ll start putting it back together and hopefully sell it!
Wow, very cool. Are you planning on selling them next winter or giving it a go this spring? Also, what took do you suggest to clean the piston cylinder? Thanks!
Thank you! Even though we’d probably net more to sell them at the beginning of next winter, I think I’m going to try to sell them this spring. I’d like to clean up around here, plus that revenue can purchase more machines! As far as tools go, it depends on how damaged the cylinder is. For light cleaning, a good cylinder hone works wonders.