Electric Starter MTD Snowblower

Previous owner was heavy on the starter button, burned out the armature and melted the carbon brushes into the plastic holders.

Got a deal on this snowblower otherwise it wouldn't have come home with me, found another 110 volt starter at the landfill with broken mounting tabs that otherwise worked.



Drilled out the spot welds from both starter mounting brackets the using the MIg spot welded to good bracket onto the landfill starter. The copper fields are a fair distance from the shell case, thought I may have to quickly toss a wet rag onto my welds to cool them off.

Everything worked out fine, I now have a snow blower to sell.

Originally Posted by NHscrapman

Single or two stage?
I'm trying to rebuild one with parts from two scrap donors. Got the broken auger gearbox out of one donor and the gears are still good but they need to go into the gearbox that is in good shape minus the stripped out gears and box full of shavings. Already rewound the pullstart and rebuilt the carb and made a rope coil to turn the chute that's gears are all stripped as well as lengthening the chute turn control to avoid bending over to turn the handle. This is all to save me from buying a $500 machine.

It's a 30 inch two stage, if I were to keep it would change out the Tecumseh engine for another brand that starts in cold weather.

With todays technology I'm finding that the brass gears are no longer being hogged out on a gear machine but rather being hydraulically pressed and formed using powdered metallurgy then heat treating. I do not have much faith in this new technology albeit it's here to stay.

To prolong the life of your refurbished snowblower, at the end of the season I would drain and flush the gear case then refill with new lube. You'll be surprised at the crap that comes out, bunch of brass fillings.

I stand corrected the snowblower drive requires an extreme pressure lubricant.

1. Citgo EP Compound 90/AGMA 5 EP
2. Mobil Gear 630 (AGMA 4 & 5 EP)
3. Any AGMA 4 EP Qualified Lube"

I too inherited one last fall. 30" MTD with a 10hp Tecumseh. My neighbor used it for his snow removal business.

Started easy and ran, but wouldn't do anything but idle since the butterfly shaft in the carb was seized. Mower shop told him the carb wasn't able to be saved (of course they wanted to sell him a new one at $140)
He pushed it into my yard and said scrap away.

After working at it with some good Berkebile penetrating oil I was able to get it freed up. Took it apart and cleaned everything, put it back together and now I have a free snowblower.
It has the 110v starter, but the switch is a bit funky and the bendix doesn't seem to want to engage. But it's no big deal since the carb primer works great and it's easy to pull over.

Total amount invested: a couple of hours of my time and $3 for new carb and intake bolts.

Originally Posted by EDC76

I too inherited one last fall. 30" MTD with a 10hp Tecumseh. My neighbor used it for his snow removal business.

Started easy and ran, but wouldn't do anything but idle since the butterfly shaft in the carb was seized. Mower shop told him the carb wasn't able to be saved (of course they wanted to sell him a new one at $140)
He pushed it into my yard and said scrap away.

After working at it with some good Berkebile penetrating oil I was able to get it freed up. Took it apart and cleaned everything, put it back together and now I have a free snowblower.
It has the 110v starter, but the switch is a bit funky and the bendix doesn't seem to want to engage. But it's no big deal since the carb primer works great and it's easy to pull over.

Total amount invested: a couple of hours of my time and $3 for new carb and intake bolts.

Most carburetor issues are ethanol induced, ethanol blended gasolines should be outlawed.

As a parts and carburetor cleaner, I have an 5 liter ultrasonic cleaner on my wish list.

Originally Posted by miked

Alloy2, its Sunday afternoon and I learned something once again. I was unaware of powder metal pressure cast parts. Thanks for the education and the video. 73, Mike

Your welcome Mike, below the broken worm gear from a high end Kubota snowblower is a perfect example of how we're being ripped off. In my day and age you could replace the worm gear as they were machined with a keyway, from the picture you can tell the gear was manufactured in place onto the shaft with the odd looking hub.

The hub serves two purposes, keeps the gear from slipping on the shaft but due to the odd configuration of the hub you can not just remove a worn out worm or replace a broken worm gear your forced to purchase the whole assembly.

The worm gear failure also destroyed the gear housing, fortunately it was not my Kubota snowblower although I did have the same model - you noticed that the latter part of that statement is pas tense. I sold the Orange tractor with the blower.

You can bet that the less expensive MTD product line uses a lot of powdered metallurgy parts, and this is why my snowblower is going up for sale. You want good equipment you have to find stuff manufactured during the 1960's early 70's.