Bring on the snow!!!

Last year my friend Shane gave me a little Toro snowblower. It was left by the previous owners of his last house. It worked fine as long as you kept pumping the primer button. I said I would take it and see if I could get it to work. I took it home, tossed it in the middle of the garage, kicked it, gave it the stink eye and finally sprayed some carb cleaner at it. I regret to admit I have never twisted a bolt on a 2 stroke engine. Ironically a 2 stroke and I have alot in common, we are both finnicky, sound horrible, make funny smells and are a little bit odd. I will be honest, I am more confident with a tax form than I am with a 2 stroke. That night I went and emailed Doug. I know he could fix it. I was pretty sure he could even rattle off specific parts to tweak or replace if not just repair it by having me hold the phone up to the snowblower so that he could use his intricate knowledge of a 2 stroke to just tell it to behave. He wrote back and said it was a good little snowblower and all I really needed to do was pull the carb apart and clean out the main jet. Gas sits in the bowl and varnishes things up a bit.

I strolled out into the garage after reading the email and slowly dismantled the cowling until I finally found the carb mounted in the back. I didn't want to take the carb off so I took out two adjustment screws and looked down their holes. they looked dirty so I sprayed some carb cleaner down in them. After I cleaned the carb cleaner out of my mouth and eyes when it shot back out at me I sprayed some cleaner in the carb and put it back together. to my delight it started and idled without requiring me to pump the primer the whole time. Then I pulled the handle to spin the blades- BLAH! it said as it died. Discouraged I put it away for the year and didn't touch it again.

This year we got several descent snow storms. The first storm I sweated, grunted and groaned as I cleaned our driveway. It was so hot that I removed my coat and gloves and labored in nothing but a t-shirt. As I finished I heard a fmiliar scream. My neighbors across the street had bought the exact same snow blower we had for $30 at the DI. I stood motionless, freezing drool collecting on my bottom lip as I watched my neighbor casually stroll behind their snowblower as it beautifully arched the snow clear of the driveway. I listened to the engine as it churned through the snow it seemed to hunker down and growl contendedly as if it were saying "Mmmmm yummy!"

While placing the shovel back on the rack I decided I would take another crack at the snowblower. this time I pulled the carb off and took most of it apart. I shoved a wire from a twisty tie down all of the holes I could see and gave them a shot with carb cleaner. I put it back together and started it up. It seemed to work fine now. But, I didn't have anymore snow to really test it on.

The next snow storm arrived and I anxiously fired up the Toro and shoved it into a strip of 3 inch snow it gobbled at it for a bit and then let out a groan as it grumbled to a stop. After trying out several strategies I figured out that if I took it slow and as soon as I heard it start to go into the "death groan" I could quickly stab the primer button with my cold, wet finger. it would sputter a few revs out and then howl back to life. I plowed our driveway through two storms this way, but in the back of my mind I still had the vision of my neighbors snowblower merrily tossing the snow aside like a puppy throwing around a ragged old shoe.

Yesterday, I discovered on the Toro website that there is a needle connected to the float in the bowl... the part I never took off of the carb last time I cleaned it. Haunted by the vision of my neighbor's snow hungry machine I took the carb apart for the second time and cleaned the carb thoroughly with a pipe cleaner, carb cleaner and another wire from a twisty. I took everyithing apart inspected it, cleaned it and carefully put it back.

This time when I started the snowblower I nervously inched it towards a pile of snow. I let the blades lick at the pile for a bit then I gave it a little bite. it spat it out throwing it about 20 feet. "You liked that huh?" I said as I pulled it back and rammed it into the pile of snow. The RPMs dropped and the engine growled devilishly as it spat out a stream of pulverized snow. "VICTORY WAS MINE!" I went around clearing the driveway back to the grass. I cleaned a neighbors walk who never got around to finishing from the last storm. dissappointed I looked around and discovered all of the driveways and walks were cleared. One time Doug told me "just take it apart, see how it works and fix it." That has worked every time... except for the time my computer broke. For some reason you can't just look at electronics and see how they work.