# Bolens 5210 Snowblower...1 forward gear, 3 reverse gears?!



## joebush44 (Dec 1, 2013)

Hi guys, first post and need some help!

I have a Bolens 5210 snowblower and only have one forward gear. It's as if the transmission was put in backwards!

The transmission has actual metal gears. It should be 3 forward gears and one reverse...but it's backwards. I took the cover off the transmission and tinkered around with it a little bit, but it appears to be assembled correctly and cannot be put together any different way 

In my research, I found that the engine is not the factory Tecumseh 5hp engine. It has a Montgomery Ward 5hp engine on it. So I thought, maybe the pto is backwards from what it should be, but it's not - the auger spins the correct way!

I have no idea...any thoughts?? Help!


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## sscotsman (Dec 8, 2010)

Joe,
this happens occasionally!
I have heard of it happening with friction disk drives that are not adjusted correctly..
but it sounds like you dont have a friction plate perhaps?

Does the interior look like this? with the flat round platter and a rubber wheel that contacts with it?










If not, can you post some photos of the guts of the machine?
that will help a lot..
Scot


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## Shryp (Jan 1, 2011)

He said he has a real transmission with metal gears. That rules out a friction disc. You said the engine was replaced. I know exactly what happened. Your original engine was a dual shaft engine. It had the crankshaft and the camshaft PTO stuck out of the cover as well. The camshaft spins backwards and at half speed. Smaller snowblowers used that camshaft as a way of gearing down the drive without having to have a lot of parts inside the transmission. Unfortunately you are pretty stuck. A few people have had success with flipping the gear box on friction drive machines, but you still have the drive going twice as fast as it should. You could look for another dual shaft engine, but they are rare and expensive.


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## joebush44 (Dec 1, 2013)

Correct, it is a metal gear trans...no friction drive. Here is a pic of the empty transmission case. You can see the drive gear in the lower left part of the case.


Here is a pic with the gears installed. The bottom shaft is driven off the gear mentioned in the picture above. The top gear has a gear selector shaft (not pictured/installed) that pushes two pins to the left (you can see the ring that moves left and right), to lock in whichever gear is desired. First, second, and all the way to the left for 3rd gear. All the way to the right should be the reverse gear, but that is currently my only forward gear.


I think Shryp might be right, but I can't find a picture of the original engine anywhere. His theory makes sense because the auger is spinning the correct way, but it appears the gears need to be spinning the opposite way.


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## joebush44 (Dec 1, 2013)

Here is a blowup diagram of the transmission. Apparently this Bolens model is the same model as the Troybilt 5210D model...
Diagram link here...
http://www.searspartsdirect.com/par...Parts/Model-5210R/1307/1507200/00050779/00003


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## joebush44 (Dec 1, 2013)

Alright, looked at the engine diagram and as Shryp suspected...the original engine had 2 PTO shafts 
So i guess Im on the hunt for a new motor...or I just deal with it having one forward gear :/


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## Grunt (Nov 11, 2013)

If you use your engine model and spec number to look up the correct parts list for your motor, you could probably find the part number for the cam shaft that has the extended shaft and just swap them . I don't remember is the side case needs to be changed also.


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## joebush44 (Dec 1, 2013)

Grunt said:


> If you use your engine model and spec number to look up the correct parts list for your motor, you could probably find the part number for the cam shaft that has the extended shaft and just swap them . I don't remember is the side case needs to be changed also.


Great idea, but not sure that they made a dual PTO version of this engine. I'm not sure of the model number, but it's an old Montgomery Ward engine. Will have to see if I can find a Model # on it somewhere when I get home. Thanks!


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## joebush44 (Dec 1, 2013)

Could this be a second PTO shaft? Right now it looks like there's a bolt in it...I'd doesn't spin then the engine is turning over. Not sure...could this possibly be converted to a dual pto engine?

I also found out that this a actually a Briggs & Stratton, model # 130202, type 0640-02 engine. 5hp


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