snow thrower wheel will not turn

amen2u

I have a craftsman 2-stage model 994.524591 snow thrower. The left wheel will not engage when I apply power. It sort of "hits and misses", and stops at the lightest resistance. The right wheel engages as usual. I checked the parts repair exploded diagram, but wonder if there is a repair manual on-line that I could access. Or any other reference to help me in fixing this.

I can do some mechanical repairs but I am not familiar with snow throwers, so need help here.

Any and all responses appreciated

TIA.

AllanJ

With the snow blower turned off and the wheels engaged, does the left wheel turn freely?

It could have an optional pin, visible at the wheel center or hub from the outside, that may have fallen out or broken. The pin is removed when you have to go around a lot of curves, where the wheels need to rotate at different rates. But this only works when you don't need that much traction.

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amen2u

AllanJ: Thanks for the suggestion. I can turn the wheel manually under any conditions. You are right --- I suspect a shear pin or something like that has broken or has become disengaged. It's just that I have not worked on snow throwers before, so I really do not know what I am looking for. All I have is that exploded parts diagram.

Bondo

Ayuh,... That should be enough,...

Does it show a shear pin, or drive pin,..??

Google usually brings up any other manuals that Might be available...

amen2u

Usually it is, but as I said, I have no experience here. Here is the diagram. I think the toothed gears (21 & 23) must somehow mesh and drive the wheel.

I am going to taker it apart soon --- as soon as it warms up a bit. It is minus 20 Celsius here today and I have to work outside.

DexterII

It could be as involved as one of those gears, or a clutch, but I believe that Allan was referring to the item # 2 pins, so don't overlook a possibly simple fix. On most, or at least a lot of, snow blowers of this size, as Allan explained, one wheel can drive, or both wheels can drive, and it's usually a simple matter of removing or relocating one of those pins. On some of them, you will remove one pin for one wheel drive, or leave them both in place for two wheel drive. On others, such as my 20 year old Simplicity, you have two holes next to each other; with the pin in one hole it has one wheel drive, and with the pin in the other hole it has two wheel drive. Check to see if both of those pins are there before assuming that it's something more than that.

amen2u

All good advice and I will certainly check for a more obvious remedy than an all out repair.

I appreciate all the attention to my problem. It's great to be part of a group.

Thanks.

Bondo

Ayuh,... Lookin' at the picture,...
I'm guessin' maybe pin #2 fell out,...
Or,...
Key #27 is sheared off....
Or,...
The gear retained by #27 is stripped...

amen2u

OK. I think I found the answer. The diagram does not show the complete riggings. This model has what they call "Power Steering". This a bit of a laugh. On each handle is a turn trigger for the wheel on that side. It is connected via a cable to a lever that disengages the gear (Number 22 on the diagram), and that stops power to that wheel. It is supposed to make turning easier. I guess it does that --- a little. But with heavy winter gloves, the trigger mostly gets in the way.

This is not shown or mentioned anywhere in the manual. As usual.

What has happened is that it got stuck in the partial release position. This left the wheel disengaged. Everything up here is so cold that things like that are common.

Because it is so cold, all I did was temporarily detach the cable so it does not release the wheel power. It only took a couple of minutes to discover and fix, so my fingers only partially froze. I'll see if I can make any lasting improvements in the spring before I put it away for the summer.

And so it now works.

Thanks again for all the advice and encouragement. It is appreciated. I hope to repay in kind on this forum if I can.