# I am adding a homemade impeller kit to my 1996 MTD



## GustoGuy

I read that a good improvement to make to a snowblower is to add an impeller kit and I seen one advertised for $30. It will really help to improve the snow throwing ability especially when the snow is wet and heavy and it greatly reduces the likelihood of clogging your chute. I decided to head over to Mill's fleet and I bought 1 foot of 3 ply Baler belt and some fender washers and some self tapping screws all for about $7.90. Here are some pictures of what I did. I first removed the chute and cleaned up some rust that was under it too. I then measured out how wide to cut the Baler belt and cut it into a 2& 3/4 inch strip. As you can see in the second photo there was at least 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch gap between the edge of the impeller paddle and the inside housing. I then cut the strips to the correct length and secured them into place. Since the Baler Belt is like a tire with the cording it should hold up real well and should really improve my snow throwing ability.


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## bwdbrn1

Looks good. Plus, you get 4¢ a gallon off! 

Which side of the impeller did you put those on? The front side that throws the snow, or the back side?

Hope you can do a video of it in action when you get the chance.


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## GustoGuy

I put the Baler belt on the front part of the impeller. I tried it out today. I shoveled togather a small pile of the rapidly melting snow left over from Thanksgiving day and it shot the wet soupy snow out 30 feet. It never shot out the wet soupy snow that well before.


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## Bain

how come you didnt do the full width of the impeller ?

...i think i might copy you on this one


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## GustoGuy

I only went as far as the flat area on the impeller which is just over 2 & 1/2 inches wide. I heard that it doesn't do much additional good to do the curved area and will only increases drag on the engine. Also the baler belt is about 1/4 inch thick too and it was just easier to do it on the flat areas and the Clarence Kit named after a man named Clarence who sells a kit for $30 dollars plus 8.00 shipping says only to put it on the flat area of the impeller. It made sort of a whirring sound right after I hit the auger and ironically when I hit the wet snow the water in the snow seemed to quiet it down a lot. I heard that the belt will wear in and will seal the impeller area better so it will throw the really wet soupy snow that sort of just dribbles out when you try and blow it. It got to 47 degrees here today and what was left of the rapidly melting snow I had to pile up just to see how it throws it. I even scraped some snow off the grass too to add to the small pile. It was nearly 50 degrees yesterday too.


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## bwdbrn1

Do you think the self tapping screws will hold up under use, or would bolts with locking nuts on the other side be an option? It's been awhile since I read anything about that kit. What sort of fasteners do they come with?


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## GustoGuy

I didn't buy the Clarence kit. I did my own with Baler Belt. I see the Clarence kit uses locking nuts and bolts. I could back out the screws and replace them with a machine screw with a locking nylon ring stainless steel nut and bolt. Many on the Internet have used the self tapping screws with good luck. Have you heard of the self tapping screws failing and coming loose or falling out? It would be a fairly easy fix since all the rubber paddles are in place. I would simply remove the screws one at a time and replace with a 3/4 inch stainless steel bolt and locking nut.


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## bwdbrn1

Just wondered what the Clarence Kit used. I was just thinking in terms of my own personal luck with self tapping screws. I'm all for taking an idea and making it your own. Yours looks great. We have Blain's Farm and Fleet stores here in my neck of the woods. I've never really ventured into the area where baler belt would be, but I just might have to check into it now that you've inspired me to improve mine.

Still can't wait to see a video. Don't suppose there's a possibility of you taking them off, doing a "before" video, then putting them back on and doing an "after" one, is there?


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## GustoGuy

Thanks for the advice. Yeah I would not want to see a 2&3/4 by 1 & 1/2 nch piece of baler belt leaving the chute at 100mph, so I will replace the self tapping screws with heavy duty stainless steel bolts and lock nuts, As to doing before and after once there is snow I would like it to be ready. My MTD with the underpowered Tecumseh 5hp that was known to bog a bit when hitting the deep stuff was an average snow thrower at best. I was watching a You tube video where a guy was blowing snow with a $2000 Honda snow blower and his snow discharge looked like Old Faithful compared to mine so it will be interesting to see and film a combination of a more powerful engine (predator 212cc) and the impeller kit. My neighbor has a newer 8 hp and his was throwing snow much better than mine a couple years ago when we actually got some snow. I will change over to bolts and lock nuts and I will film it and post the You tube once we get some snow.


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## detdrbuzzard

i purchased a kit from clarence last yaer for my craftsman but never installed it cause i haven't used that snowblower much and want to see how it works without the kit first. the kit does have bolts, nuts and a lock washers


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## GustoGuy

Well I replaced all of the self tapping screws with 3/4 inch stainless steel bolts and nylon ringed lock nuts. It took a little longer to do (about 45 minutes total) than just screw gunning the self tapping ones in but now it should never fail as a self tapping screw could back out from vibrations while the blower is being used. The Nylon lock ring should prevent the nuts from coming off due to vibrations or hitting ice chunks. That why Clarence most likely used it in his kit instead of self tapping screws.


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## micah68kj

I believe you made a very smart move GustoGuy. I *do* use self tappers but I wouldn't use them in this application.
Joe


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## Bain

hmmm i have an old wide leather belt .... i wonder if that would work


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## bwdbrn1

Might be worth a try. What the heck. If it didn't at least the holes are already drilled for the rubber if it didn't. If you give it a shot, let us know how it works.


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## GustoGuy

As to using leather I am not sure. Occasionally leather can damaged by repeated contact with water and it can eventually fail. It would most likely take some time however. Rubber on the other hand is not going to be damaged by water and the only way the paddles will fail is if they break loose or wear down considerably but they will still be better than what you had to start with. Tonight we received about 1 inch of snow and I got a chance to use my snow blower. It starts up immediately with the Predator 212cc Honda clone and first gear was too slow for this amount of snow so I tried 2nd gear and it was too slow. I finally ended up blowing my drive in 4th gear and had it done in less time than it would take to start the old temperamental Tecumseh 5 hp that I hated. Even though I was only removing about an inch at the speed I blew the driway it was throughing the snow at least 35-40 feet. We are suppose to get 4 to 6 inches of snow by Sunday morning so I plan on filming the newly re-powered snowblower in action. I am very pleased with this re-power for I saved at least $350 plus dollars even with buying the engine and larger friction disk over buying a new snowblower that would be similar in performance.


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## nelsontj

Was the shaft long enough on the Predator engine when you did the installation or did you have to make modifications?


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## micah68kj

GustoGuy said:


> As to using leather I am not sure. Occasionally leather can damaged by repeated contact with water and it can eventually fail. It would most likely take some time however. Rubber on the other hand is not going to be damaged by water and the only way the paddles will fail is if they break loose or wear down considerably but they will still be better than what you had to start with.
> 
> Probably the best thing to use would be the leftover paddle material from a single stage. Recycle, re-purpose and re-use.
> Joe


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## GustoGuy

nelsontj said:


> Was the shaft long enough on the Predator engine when you did the installation or did you have to make modifications?


Flip the lower auger pulley and it brings the belt grove further back by almost 3/4 of an inch. It solved the driveshat length issue. Check out my earlier posts and you will see what I did to solve the most common issues with swapping out a Tecumseh 5hp snowking. You will need to modify the linkage too. I did it by cutting it and flipping it over and rewelding it. Others have drilled out the stud at the bottom of the linkage and used a long bolt and washers to extended so the linkage will not contact the friction wheel. Check out my former posts.


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## bbuck

*1995 mtd 5hp 22"*

I just made and installed my own impeller kit out of an old rubber mat I had in our barn that horses used to stand on. It is really too thick (almost 1"!), but that's all I could find for now. I cut and drilled some aluminum plate I had then used bolts w/nuts to attach them. The rubber is causing a little drag, but hopefully will wear in better now that I trimmed it up a bit. HOLY CRAP! What a HUGE improvement. I just cleared very wet and heavy snow that has been melting on and off since the big storm dumped 38" last week up here in Maine, and this little machine was throwing it 25 feet! And it did not clog even one time now! The other day it kept clogging up on me, and was throwing it about 5 feet, 15 max. I highly recommend doing this mod.


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## GustoGuy

bbuck said:


> I just made and installed my own impeller kit out of an old rubber mat I had in our barn that horses used to stand on. It is really too thick (almost 1"!), but that's all I could find for now. I cut and drilled some aluminum plate I had then used bolts w/nuts to attach them. The rubber is causing a little drag, but hopefully will wear in better now that I trimmed it up a bit. HOLY CRAP! What a HUGE improvement. I just cleared very wet and heavy snow that has been melting on and off since the big storm dumped 38" last week up here in Maine, and this little machine was throwing it 25 feet! And it did not clog even one time now! The other day it kept clogging up on me, and was throwing it about 5 feet, 15 max. I highly recommend doing this mod.


It's a great mod to do and it's almost as good as getting a new snowblower since the performance increase can be that dramatic How does your Tecumseh run? I had a 5/22 MTD and I repowered it with a Predator 212cc since the Tecumseh was difficult to start and would bog a bit when I hit heavy wet or snowplow pushed up snow like at the end of the driveway. Right now mine can hurl the snow 50 feet. even wet soupy stuff flys 25 feet with the impeller mod.


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## woodtick007

bbuck said:


> I just made and installed my own impeller kit out of an old rubber mat I had in our barn that horses used to stand on. It is really too thick (almost 1"!), but that's all I could find for now. I cut and drilled some aluminum plate I had then used bolts w/nuts to attach them. The rubber is causing a little drag, but hopefully will wear in better now that I trimmed it up a bit. HOLY CRAP! What a HUGE improvement. I just cleared very wet and heavy snow that has been melting on and off since the big storm dumped 38" last week up here in Maine, and this little machine was throwing it 25 feet! And it did not clog even one time now! The other day it kept clogging up on me, and was throwing it about 5 feet, 15 max. I highly recommend doing this mod.


That ROCKS! Great being resourceful!


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