# First post. A modification. Is there a thread for this?



## frascati (Jan 31, 2014)

Thought there might be a "mod" thread. I don't know what to call this mod so it's difficult to search. 

I just riveted a section of that ultra hard street-sign aluminum sheet to the left edge of my auger housing. Four large and two small rivets. This allows me to start in the middle of my driveway, at the end of each pass turn and take to the right side, and line the left edge of the snowblower exactly on the snow edge. Without the attachment there is always enough spill on this outside edge to require missing 1/4 of the snow lane in order to avoid this. With the extension this spill is directed back into the auger, I can remove the entire width of the pass even in pretty deep snow, and the driveway gets done all the quicker. 

Since there are several reasons why this might get in the way it ideally should be able to easily slide backward out of position. You may need to approach a wall or obstruction very closely. Also if you absolutely must travel into VERY deep or wet snow with the left hand side... the extension tends to cut leftward and want to wander deeper to the left. But for 90 percent of my use I like it in place where it is and have learned to work around those limitations. Prob wouldn't be too hard to make the top fastener a rotation point and fold the whole thing upward and backward just shy of the chute when not needed. 










Probably already discussed here since it's not exactly revolutionary. But I wonder why (unless I'm mistaken) I've never seen it available on stock blowers?


----------



## Shryp (Jan 1, 2011)

Good idea and looks great. My guess is your above limitations are the reason it is not stock. I have seen a couple odd home made pictures similar over the years, but yours looks at home on there. I think most of them I saw were angled out in an attempt to make a wider bucket.


----------



## scipper77 (Dec 4, 2013)

I like it. I would think that if you have a gutter at the end of the driveway like I do that you would run into a big problem there but otherwise I like the functional purpose for this mod.


----------



## detdrbuzzard (Jan 20, 2012)

seems like a good idea but it would make the snowbloweR take up too much room in the garage. a bolt on piece would be better for me


----------



## micah68kj (Oct 8, 2011)

Looks great and also makes sense. It wouldn't help in my situation since my driveway is so short but if I had a big area I'm sure I'd give this a whirl.
*I have to ask about the screen door hinge just below the chute...* What the heck does it do?  We want to know.


----------



## scipper77 (Dec 4, 2013)

micah68kj said:


> Looks great and also makes sense. It wouldn't help in my situation since my driveway is so short but if I had a big area I'm sure I'd give this a whirl.
> *I have to ask about the screen door hinge just below the chute...* What the heck does it do?  We want to know.


I see no chute control rod. I bet it holds the chute in position. I appreciate frascati's resourcefulness. I'm sure we have all been faced with a problem where we started looking around the house for a quick fix. I know for me personally once I find something that works I am far less likely to go back later and fix it right depending on what it is. I would probably leave that door hinge solution as long as it was working for me. Finding an original chute control setup is not as simple as a trip to Lowes.


----------



## mobeasto123 (Dec 31, 2013)

*The Best Mod I've done so Far*

Here two pics of the mod I've done.. It's the best I could have made..

I went From this !!!









And after Mods It's like This !!!










I took a lot of time and efforts to realize that..



David


----------



## frascati (Jan 31, 2014)

That looks fun! Can you pull stuck vehicles

Yeah, that's a spring loaded door hinge. I bolted it in place and then took a semi soft rubber mallet and drove the thin stamped metal against the gear teeth at the base of the chute to xfer indents to it. It holds the chute in place at about the right tension with slight ratcheting. The 724 is a small enough machine that it's just too easy to lean over the motor and turn the chute by hand. It even has a handle molded into the top deflector. 

I disconnected the handlegrip rotator on purpose since it was a lot of wasted time spinning it to go 180 degrees every time I reached the end of the driveway. With the spring loaded door hinge I can just reach out and spin it 180 degrees in one second flat. 

My next mod on this 724 has been a pretty big one. I shelved the 35 year old 7hp L-head and replaced it with a new generator-duty Tecumseh 11hp OHV. There's a lot of NOS on these for super cheap (115 USD +30 USD ship) since the shaft only fits a specific coleman generator.








http://www.smallenginesurplus.com/tecumseh-oh318ea222712-p-3882.html

I just bored out the dual belt 724 pulley on my lathe to match the 7/8" generator shaft and put two tig weld spots at the end to secure it. For future service it will take two minutes to grind off the little welds and remove the pulley. There's even a winter mode on the filter cover that reverses 180 deg to pull heat from the muffler with a shroud so it is somewhat winterizable for snowblower use. 

I had to compensate for the generator duty motor with the paper filter removed. It left it a little on the lean side and the carb on this is one of those glass reinforced black plastic bowls with no adjustments whatsoever. Governor adjustments went just so far to clear up the lean condition of hunting so i sanded a few hundredths from the top of the float needle to raise the fuel level in the bowl a bit. That little seemed to do the trick and it runs beautifully now. 11hp OHV on a 24" auger just digs like a monster. 

While I was at it I mounted the larger motor with isolation mounts. A little brainstorming led me to O'reilly's Auto Parts and this 8 dollar (3.69 x 2 plus tax) set of sway bar bushings which are surprisingly ideal for the job. The same bushings are probably avail at any auto big box store. 








MasterPro® Chassis K5252 - Stabilizer Bar Link Kit | O'Reilly Auto Parts
They even come in a harder red urethane version for the same price. Might be better for heavier two cylinder motors. I love re-purposed off-the-shelf solutions to things. From McMaster Carr these components would probably cost 30 dollars or more and may not even have been as perfectly adaptable to the purpose. 

Simply increase the mounting holes in the snowblower motor base to accept the smaller shoulder molded into the rubber bushings (in between them in the photo) and they seat in the chassis holes without movement. One bushing atop the motor mounting base and one bushing below. Mount the motor, of course, right on top of the uppermost cup washer with a 3/8 bolt length able to pull all components together with a nyloc nut. It's a surprisingly cheap and effective small motor anti-vibe mount. Older machine chassis and welds tend to stress crack over time with the constant mid-freq destructive vibration of a mounted single. 

It's more than just comfort at the handlegrips (tho that's a real nice plus). It ought to extend the life of any machine you add them to. If they can hold up to controlling sway on a chevy nova they ought to be happy enough under a sixty lb. snowblower motor over time. And they ended up absorbing a huge amount of vibration. About one inch longer belts may be needed, but it's about time to replace them anyway, no?

If anyone's interested I'll post a few photos.


----------



## dbert (Aug 25, 2013)

frascati said:


> Thought there might be a "mod" thread. I don't know what to call this mod so it's difficult to search.
> 
> Since there are several reasons why this might get in the way it ideally should be able to easily slide backward out of position.
> 
> Probably already discussed here since it's not exactly revolutionary. But I wonder why (unless I'm mistaken) I've never seen it available on stock blowers?


Looks a bit like this
http://www.snowblowerforum.com/forum/general-snowblower-discussion/5586-first-post-what-do-i-have-here.html#post47946


----------



## Kiss4aFrog (Nov 3, 2013)

_*"If anyone's interested I'll post a few photos."

*_I'd like to see it.

Any idea if that generator motor can be fitted with an electric start ?? Does it have an output (stator) for a light ??


----------



## frascati (Jan 31, 2014)

Yes it is is set up for a starter motor. It's an older OEM and I've also wondered if it has an output on the stator for lights. Can someone tell me where to look? I've googled and found no info in that regard. But it ought to be easy to see if anyone gave me a tip.


----------



## scipper77 (Dec 4, 2013)

Why would a generator motor have its own generator for lights? It might for all I know but it makes no sense to me to put an output circuit on a motor for this application.


----------



## Kiss4aFrog (Nov 3, 2013)

There would be a lead with a connector in the area of the starter or the starter mounts.
.


----------



## Kiss4aFrog (Nov 3, 2013)

It might have had it's own 12 volt starting system to self start in a power outage and the stator is to recharge the battery ??
12v outlet for charging things that you'd plug into your car ??

It might be a system that fits it because the short block was used with a different crank in a different application.

I just wanted to find out if you could add one to it as it's dirt cheap for 11hp.

This is the email I received when I asked about the flywheel needed to run the available stator for it : Mark, All the parts for that engine, including the flywheel, have been discontinued.

I looked up the engine and found there was a starter and stator for it but I can't find one. All the flywheels I find with the correct stator friendly magnets part number turn out not to have them or the ring gear for the starter. Why was it available for a generator engine, don't know but it was. 
.








.
.
Diagrams and part numbers can be found here:
http://www.jackssmallengines.com/Jacks-Parts-Lookup/Manufacturer/tecumseh/27954/27941
.
.


----------



## Kiss4aFrog (Nov 3, 2013)

The other thing that caught my eye was that it's not an adjustable throttle from the description. Start it and it runs at full RPM.

Where you able to modify the throttle to get control of it and if so how ??


----------

