Adventures In Snowblowing

Woke up this morning to an unexpectedly heavy snow fall. It was supposed to Cleveland more in the snow belt and leave the west side of town with next to nothing.

When you've got 5 inches of snow with 15 degree temperatures there's only one thing to do!

That's right! Fire up Ole Red!

Things were going along swimmingly well until all of a sudden I heard a sickening screech coming from the Ole Fire breathing Powerhouse. The last time I heard a sound like that was back in Dallas when I ran a brand new lawn mower without oil. Brilliant.

I pushed the hulk into the garage going over in my head how I was going to tell the wife that I blew the engine on another expensive piece of apparatus. "It was...soap. Poisoning..."

First thing I did was check the oil. If the dip stick was bone dry and smoke poured out of engine then I knew the engine was toast. But the dip stick indicated there was plenty of fresh oil in the crankcase. What the?

So I plugged the starter back in and cranked the engine. Started right up!

Ohthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!

Thing was, when I engaged the blades it stalled out again with he same sickening screech. Something was wrong. Quick check up and inside the blower and I found what was the matter.

Is it spring yet?