Craftsman 536.819501 Snow Blower Pulley Spring

tgice

Hi, I've been trying to resuscitate an old (1970s?) 2hp 20" snowblower I inherited from my father in law.

Part of this involved discovering that I had a 1" crack in the rubber fuel hose on it and at last resolving why it was blowing through tanks of gas like nobody's business. So once I replaced that, I was getting ready to replace all of the annoying covers on the thing when I realized that the spring that attaches to what I think is called the belt tensioner pulley was just dangling from the pulley bracket itself and not attached to anything.

I've spent a good amount of time trying to look at diagrams (on sears.com -- it's horribly unclear and doesn't help much) or find the manual, but I've had no luck. Does anyone have a clue where the other end of that spring attaches on this model or one like it (a small 2hp 20" Craftsman from about 20 - 30 years ago?).

I know it's a shot in the dark, but thought I'd try. I could include a photo if it would help.

Bondo

Yes, it would,... A few, from multiple angles, 'n distances...
Sized to 480x640 is nice too....

tgice

Here are some photos. The last ones show how I've hooked the spring up for now, but I can't believe that's how it was originally (really wish I had looked of course, but I think it came undone when I was removing the back/bottom plastic cover to get at my fuel line -- and I'm not sure what caused it to pop out).

Aha! As I was typing this, I figured out how it was probably originally connected. When I was taking the belt cover off to take the photos for this (previously, I was just kind of pulling it back to see what was going on), a small metal piece with two holes in it fell out and I had no idea where it came from.

It looks like it had a nut tightened on to it and then it has another much smaller hole (one perfect for the hook on this spring, it appears). I think that piece was used effectively as a washer on one of the bolts that holds the bottom cover on (the hole for this bolt is visible in one of the photos).

I'm almost positive that's it and I'll try to reattach when I replace that final bolt. I'm including the photos anyway on the off chance it may help some one with a very similar blower.

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tgice

Here are the final photos.

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bob22

Model #?
Does where you put the spring allow the auger to engage?
I assume if so, you can't stop the auger?
You didn't show a picture of the belt cover and the "a small metal piece with two holes in it fell out and I had no idea where it came from."
Those might help.
It would seem to me that the idler pulley is meant to either keep the belt tight so auger runs whenever engine runs or keep belt loose enough so that some other mechanism can be used to engage (make pulley move to tighten belt and engage auger) the auger. Is there some lever or something to engage/disengage auger?

tgice

Model # is in the title of the post.

This is a very simple snowblower. The auger is always spinning when the engine is on, so the pulley in question is just a tensioner, I think, w/ constant tension provided by the spring. There is no lever to engage / disengage any drive or auger.

I think I have the problem solved now, but thanks for your reply. I'll pick it up again if something more goes awry -- we're expecting up to 4" in the next couple of days, so I'll certainly be able to use it.

EDIT: I didn't realize that I hadn't done an explicit update on the washer/spring terminator part. I *did* successfully install that when putting the last cover bolts in and it does appear to work fine, it's a better location for the spring than what I'd fudged before and I'm sure it's how things were originally. Thanks to those who replied and read my post.

bob22

Model # is in the title of the post
Sorry, missed that, doh!

Glad it is working; how the 4" were no trouble for the blower.