Yesterday we woke up to our first real snow fall. I’ve been procrastinating the repairs needed on our first snow blower. Overall the machine was in good condition and had a nice patina. We paid $750 and picked it up from a kid who had drug it out of a barn and recently brought it back to life, including a new battery, coil and carb kit. However some people just aren’t as meticulous as myself or knowledgeable and kinda just blunder through a project hoping for the best. Not blaming this kid and there’s evidence of repairs/maintenance of years passed.
The machine is a 1980 Case 224 with a Kohler K321AS 14Hp. Came with mower deck and 38” snocaster single stage blower. These machines were manufactured just an hour from our house. Gotta love America’s dairyland.
The immediate issues were that it was a nasty greasy mess. The engine was not secure and moved all around. The engine would run away. The drive system wouldn’t hold a consistent speed. Bad fuel.
He had never used the blower and wasn’t sure if he had the correct belt. So far the belt he included seems to be the correct length of 73”. Last night I finally got around to a full tear down of cowling, carb, governor, fuel pump, points, fuel tank and engine brackets. The engine mounts are funky, gonna build something suitable for Ultra4 in the future to fix the odd mounting system. The engine was literally held in place by the hydraulic reservoir to pump line. This task was made more enjoyable by sludging through all the grease and dirt. The 4 bolts that attach the engine block to the frame adapters were completely unthreaded. Luckily by inherent design they were trapped because they’re special tapered counter sink bolts. Also the rubber isolators on the adapters were losing their original rivets so for time being I threw 3/16 pop rivets at them to get me by.
Once secure I moved on to timing, points gap, verifying valve lash, cleaning, cleaning the fuel tank, all new fuel line, filter and some new wiring I cannibalized from the race truck. I discovered the starter, points and fuel pump were new. The coil had to be mounted and needed a new points lead. Coil was previously secured to the muffler using a bungee. Yep. The throttle and choke cables were properly adjusted and so was the gov. Indirectly it got a fresh oil change since I had to remove the remote oil drain tube to raise the engine to repair the mounts.
I filled her up with fresh high octane fuel, charged the battery and she fired right up! Engine is much quieter and smoother with the correct timing and securement. It does not run away at full throttle. Yay! The drive issues were related to the gov and throttle problems. Most of all it throws snow from over here to over there. Sorry I don’t have any pictures of the repair work. Just a summer photo and after dark snow pictures. I shoveled yesterday but left a patch to test. Works perfect. Sadly I’m excited for more/deeper snow to really play with this thing. Sure will be a back saver over shoveling.
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