A Toro Power Curve 1800 Snow Thrower

Someone brought me an electric snow thrower to repair. It's a Toro model No. 38025, S/N 290008995 -- an 18" swath, 12 amp machine.

It's missing its final drive belt, and the toothed primary drive belt is looking a bit frayed. Here's a view of the left side of the unit, where the belts reside.

Final drive belt replacement looks like it should be a breeze. Primary drive belt replacement will involve removing a pulley.

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Intermediate Pulley Removal

That 9/16" A/F (across flats) hex is the head of the intermediate pulley's spindle. It has a left-hand thread, so it's CW to remove it. Removing the spindle with its pulley gets you to here.

The toothed belt's Toro P/N is 73-0160. Belt width is 19mm. On close inspection, the belt appears to be in good condition, and needn't be replaced.

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Final Drive Belt

It's Toro P/N 61-8802; a five-ribbed belt. The belt is a tight fit -- it takes a bit of doing to get it on its pulleys. You may want to unspring the tension idler to make installation a little easier. Belt tension seems excessive to me, but it is the correct belt.

Here's a view of the installed belt.

Left Side Cover

The cover was missing its three fastening screws, and an associated skid plate. I replaced the screws with No. 8 x 3/4" hex washerhead sheet metal screws, GC Electronics P/N 11-206-C. The machine will have to do without its left side skid plate, unless the owner can find what's become of it. Here's a view of the left side cover installed with its replacement screws

Discharge Chute

The upper deflector portion of the chute is loose on its pivots.

The 5/16" x 1" carriage bolts aren't seated in their square recesses, and the prevailing torque of the nyloc nuts is too great for the plastic material to resist. Trying to tighten the nyloc nuts only causes the bolts to turn. The bolts' shanks won't seat in the square recesses. The pivoting/tensioning scheme cannot work as designed.

I replaced the carriage bolts with 1" hex head bolts with 5/16" plate washers under the heads. That makes it possible to snug up the bolts so the deflector is properly tensioned.

In Conclusion

A worthwhile repair, I suppose, although the price of the replacement final drive belt struck me as outrageous -- $46.46 CDN + HST came to $52.50! A new replacement machine, same make and model, is $449.00 CDN + HST at the Home Depot, so repair cost here was within reason.

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Missing Left Side Skid Plate Dealt With -- WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2019

That missing left side skid was bothering me, so I came up with a fix. Here's a view of the skid that's on the right side leading edge of the auger housing.

Note the two tabs that employ two right side cover screws to fasten the skid in place.

I could see no practicable way to fabricate a truly equivalent part.^[1] So, I fabricated a skid with a different fastening scheme. Here's a view of what I came up with for the left side.

That's a 5" length of 1/8" x 1/2" steel flat, rolled to conform to the auger housing's profile. Three countersunk holes accept No. 5 x 1/2" flat head wood screws. It looks to me like a sound arrangement -- I'm quite pleased with it.

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Addendum -- FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2019 -- Get The Idler Tension Spring Hooked On Right!

You want the idler tension spring to be securely hooked. Here's how it ought to look.

If the spring is hooked the other way around, the hooking won't be nearly as secure.

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Note:

[1] "So why not just obtain an OEM replacement for the missing skid?", you may ask.

Too much aggravation and expense is why. Another trip out to the small engines place in Pickering, where they'd be unlikely to stock such an item. Then, if the part were available to be ordered, another trip out to Pickering to collect it, plus the cost of the part itself.

By fabricating a functionally equivalent part from material I had on hand, I bypassed all that and I now have a truly finished repair that I can return to the customer right now. An outcome well worth the effort of part fabrication.

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