My Winter Hobby

[tpenfield]

Ted, maybe clean and paint your chute and impeller discharge..... that rusty mess isn't helping.

I had my blower head and chute flame applied plastic coated (similar to powder coat) on my old John Deere which helped keeping the snow from sticking in the chute and the impeller discharge area

conveyor belt material works great as paddle blade extensions

normally a gap of about an 1/8" is what you want between the impeller and the housing

Yes, did just that (painting) a couple of weeks ago. (Impeller picture is from a few years ago)


The machine, with a new shaft bearing, painting, and a new 212cc engine is like new. Throws snow very well for a small machine.

I think many of the brands (like MTD) have gone with the plastic chutes to keep the throwing distance fairly high, by avoiding rust of a metal/painted chute.

Ariens and Husqvarna are a few hold-outs on the metal chutes. Probably viewed as more durable by the marketplace.

 

[Scott Danforth]

Ariens was migrating over the products slowly to injection molded chutes. the problem with plastic is rocks tend to shatter them when the temp is -40.

Ted, you may want to peel off the TORO decal and have some TP decals made up

 

[82rude]

I have the toro 8hp 2004 26 incher with the plastic chute.Zero issues with it atall and everything goes through it ,slush,ice chunks etc.No shear bolts either.ive caught 3/4 inch chain in it and all she does s stall.Very tuff gearcase.Also love the single hand chute control .Has the old reliable l head motor(tech).Exactly what paint are you guys using?Pic of can?

 

[tpenfield]

Rustoleum paint . . . nothing special. I bought the quart cans and did some custom color matching, then diluted it down for my HVLP spray gun.

I use Rustoleum rust reformer spray on the areas that need it though.

There happened to be one of the newer Toro machines on CL a couple weeks back - decent shape and priced at about 1/2 of what it could sell for. Only lasted a few hours, so I didn't even have a chance to call on it. Love that joystick chute control of the Power Max series. :thumb:

 

[sam am I]

The impeller mod is well worth it, especially on the MTD family of machine (i.e. Troy-Bilt) there is about 5/8" clearance between the edge of the impeller blade and the housing on the Troy-bilt machines

Very good stuff tp!!, tyvm....few more questions if you don't mind plz.

This stuff seems to be the choice for the DIY's, have you used it? and is it okay? or is there something better you like/use? I'd like to add this weekend for a project, so picking up something locally tonight/tomorrow is preferred.

Not sure on the current rating either but, Ya never know, I might need to add a Battery and a Rockford Audio Amp and some Speaks, active vibration cancellation.........:faint2:

Naaaaah BUT, it has heated grips, head light and that electric joy stick chute control and no battery. All powered when engine is started of course, was wondering if I had any headroom if i add any extra trinkets....... Is everything AC powered? If not, there's a rectifier of course, BUT, is there a regulator?

Assuming it has a rec/reg (or just rec) it'd be un-filtered DC due to no battery then I reckon.....Hmmm, might have to put a meter/scope on it. It's new and I haven't tore in to it yet, just curious what's (and where) under the hood electrically if ya knew by chance.

conveyor belt material works great as paddle blade extensions

normally a gap of about an 1/8" is what you want between the impeller and the housing

Thx Scott, any idea if the stuff I linked above ok? And will do on the 1/8" gap when I install, good idea!!

 

[tpenfield]

The Bailer Belt is the preferred material for impeller modifications. I have not used it, since I had some similar material on-hand. You'll buy a lot more than you need, so it could last through many machine mods.

Typically on the impeller modification, you set the bailer belt paddles so that they are slightly touching the housing and then lube the housing with some cooking spray so that they will 'wear-in' at their initial use. You want to make sure the paddles are not so tight that they put up significant resistance.

I put a scope (oscilloscope) on the generator output of my 305 Briggs engine . . . got a nice sign wave. Many of the snowblower electrical systems just use a diode and go with a halfwave rectification. Some might use a full wave for smoother power.

If the lights tend to flicker at idle speeds, then it is probably a half wave setup.

I tried to get a full wave out of my Briggs, but I ended up needing a transformer in between the AC and the DC sides, so to keep things simple, I just went with half wave. At mid-to-full throttle the lights are on solid.. . no flickering.

 

[tpenfield]

Here are a couple of scope images from the charging system on my Briggs 305cc

Raw output


Diode (half wave) rectified


It wasn't what I wanted, but it was good enough to go.

 

[sam am I]

The Bailer Belt is the preferred material for impeller modifications. I have not used it, since I had some similar material on-hand. You'll buy a lot more than you need, so it could last through many machine mods.

Typically on the impeller modification, you set the bailer belt paddles so that they are slightly touching the housing and then lube the housing with some cooking spray so that they will 'wear-in' at their initial use. You want to make sure the paddles are not so tight that they put up significant resistance.

Cool, got it.

I put a scope (oscilloscope) on the generator output of my 305 Briggs engine . . . got a nice sign wave. Many of the snowblower electrical systems just use a diode and go with a halfwave rectification. Some might use a full wave for smoother power.

I'll check, thx

If the lights tend to flicker at idle speeds, then it is probably a half wave setup.

I tried to get a full wave out of my Briggs, but I ended up needing a transformer in between the AC and the DC sides, so to keep things simple,

You'd have to un-ground (isolate/float) the other side (low side) of the stator winding from frame/ground.



Once you have both the stator's output wires floating (neither electrically tied to ground/frame), full wave bridge rec would work fine.


The secondary (AC wire side as opposed to the perm magnet side in the case of a magneto/stator setup) of your stator is a transformer (the right half anyway) and by default provides the necessary electrical isolation required to full wave bridge rectify. BUT, as stated above, you can as long as you don't have either secondary wires (AC output, the D4/D1, D2/D3 nodes) electrically tied/referenced to the frame (system, Ig, lighting etc ground/return, "0V", the D4/D2 node as labeled here).

I just went with half wave. At mid-to-full throttle the lights are on solid.. . no flickering.

You have a battery start then? Your scope image in #47 shows you have filtering

 

[fishrdan]

Luckily you have a boat for a summer hobby...

 

[sam am I]

Luckily you have a boat for a summer hobby...

Mine was bigger, we called them Combines........ :laugh:

 

[tpenfield]

. . .

You'd have to un-ground (isolate/float) the other side (low side) of the stator winding from frame/ground.

You have a battery start then? Your scope image in #47 shows you have filtering

Yes, I tied various things in terms of letting the DC side float vs. grounding . . . don't remember exactly, but it did not seem to work out well enough. It had been about 20 years since I did power supplies, so I gave up trying to get a full wave.

I put a 2200 uf capacitor on the DC side to smooth out the half wave. I have a 'headlamp' that draws about 1.1 amps and 2 side lights that draw about 0.05 amps each . . . so only about 25% of capacity.

no battery . . .

 

[82rude]

Mine was bigger, we called them Combines........ :laugh:

I use to paint them back in 1974 in Winnipeg for massey international and ford and apply the decals .Cool summer job that paid 3 and hour which was double min wage.Krazy capret use to be a popular add on for chutes to get a better throwing surface in the chutes.

 

[sam am I]

Went to TSC, found/picked up this...........



Might be able to do this for around $20 and be able to do it tomorrow then, good deal, thx tpen!!

I put a 2200 uf capacitor on the DC side to smooth out the half wave.

Ahhhh.......this

 

[tpenfield]

That is probably a life-time supply of bailer belt as far as doing snow blower mod's, but it is about the smallest amount you can buy. :noidea:

 

[tpenfield]

Went to TSC, found/picked up this...........

Might be able to do this for around $20 and be able to do it tomorrow then, good deal, thx tpen!!

Ahhhh.......this

The flux capacitor- if I can get the machine up to 88 mph it will do time travel

I now recall the challenge that I had with the electrical system. . . I could not float the stator. It seemed to be grounded inside the flywheel housing or something like that. So I just went with what worked.

 

[sam am I]

Yes, 88 mph however, the flux cap has to have 1.21 gigawatts in it!! If you float that whole stator assembly and get switched over to that full wave set up, that should allow the required charge rate. Or get a plutonium-powered nuclear reactor, whichever.

Once you're up and running, you can go back in time and re-make that stator to not be grounded internally and solve the problem before it happens!! Therefor never needing to ever go back to the past in the first place!! This then has made the original need to go back in the past and fix the problem not exist in the future.

Soooooooooo none of this conversation will ever happened in the future once you fix it!! But, since it's still the present until later, it exists, for now!! ..........:tea:

 

[sam am I]

That otta do it...Will test tomorrow but, I'll still need to trim that flange back a bit like you had to tpen. Thx again for the info guys, all good stuff.

 

[tpenfield]

That otta do it...Will test tomorrow but, I'll still need to trim that flange back a bit like you had to tpen. Thx again for the info guys, all good stuff.

Looking good . . .

You may need to trim each 'paddle' slightly as shown, depending on how tight a fit you have to the housing.


It would be interesting to know how much better performance/throwing distance you get with the impeller mod.

 

[sam am I]

Will do!!

Also thinking I better remake those alu. plates so they're a bit longer, bend them into and extending up that inside curve like you did tpen. Snow and ice will probably drive its way between the impeller and the rubber in that area, might tend to fold the rubbed back a bit too much, not sure.

 

[tpenfield]

The plates certainly help grip the rubber paddles, but I have also used fender washers instead of a plate. A key thing is that the metal should stay within the boundaries of the impeller, letting the rubber paddle overhang and close the gap.