# Craftsman 247.889571 struggling to drive



## iCavv (Jan 10, 2022)

Hi all, this summer I did some maintenance on my snowblower to get it ready for the upcoming season. I ended up changing the drive belt, auger belt, spark plug, rebuilding the carb, and greasing of moving parts.(All replaced with OEM parts). Everything seemed to be fine when after I put the machine back together and tested its operation.

Problem: Snowblower drives extremely slow or doesn't at all regardless of gears on both forwards/reverse.

This past weekend we had our first big snow of the season and I broke the machine out. I noticed the problem right away and shut the machine down to adjust the drive cable bracket, unfortunately tightening or loosing it had no resolving effect on the machines drive. I then tipped the machine up and took the belly pan cover off to inspect further. The rubber wheel was making contact with the friction wheel when the drive lever was pressed. The friction wheel was clear of debris and grease but I went ahead and cleaned it anyway with some brake cleaner. Neither of these things helped so next I removed the plastic cover covering the belts to inspect they were operating correctly, it does it look like they are. However I did notice when I engaged the drive handle I could see the friction wheel bogging down to almost not moving at all. There is still quite a bit of meat left on the rubber wheel, but from what I have read online if it is over 5 years old it should be replaced and well I never replaced this part before. So I went ahead and ordered a new piece of rubber today, but I want to make sure that this is the actual problem? Also the friction wheel spins freely when the drive is NOT engaged so I could factor it being damaged or jammed out.

I just want to be certain that the piece of rubber is the culprit before the next storm and I down a machine. I can provide pictures or videos at request.


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## Shovel (Mar 26, 2019)

Sounds like it could be binding...can you spin the disk easily by hand.
Are the wheel spacers correct..the shaft gear is not drifting over to where it's bot mating properly with the large gear is it?
Is there tension on the idler for the drive belt..does it move back and forth freely.
Did you accidentally get any lube on the belts or pulleys?


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## iCavv (Jan 10, 2022)

Shovel said:


> Sounds like it could be binding...can you spin the disk easily by hand.
> Are the wheel spacers correct..the shaft gear is not drifting over to where it's bot mating properly with the large gear is it?
> Is there tension on the idler for the drive belt..does it move back and forth freely.
> Did you accidentally get any lube on the belts or pulleys?
> ...


Yes I can spin the disk freely by hand and by pulling on the belt with or without the drive function engaged
I will assume the spacers are correct as removing the wheels was not something that was done on this machine during maintenance.
Yes there is tension, I can see it move back and forth while pressing/depressing the lever
I don't believe so , did not see anything during my inspection today, but will take a closer look when I got back inside the machine.


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## Shovel (Mar 26, 2019)

The disk should offer some resistance while turning it as the idler pulley has tension all the time..turning it one way should be fairly easy as it's pulling out the idler pulley..the other direction should offer a fair amount of resistance...the belt is narrow and the spring on the idler system doesn't have a lot force as the units have alot of speed reduction 

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## iCavv (Jan 10, 2022)

Still waiting on the rubber friction wheel to ship out but here is the video of my problem. I'm just not sure if replacing this part will really have any solution. My current piece of rubber doesn't seem to be slipping. In the video it looks like the pully that powers the drive is bogging down. Doesn't matter if the wheels are on the ground or in the air still slow....


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