Snowblower Question

Hello.
I don't have the exact model but this is a general question.
Its an 8 HP Toro, about 12 years old, doesn't have power-shift, and has 3 fwd speeds, 2 reverse.

I notice that no matter what gear I'm in, the transmission seems to push along at the same ground speed. I've looked inside, and saw a rubber-wheel that contacted a steel disk and was able to figure out that this is what adjusted the speed. The linkage appeared to work correctly.

Would anyone know if what I'm experiencing is normal? i.e. the 3-speed transmission just doesn't do much on these models? Or, even though it looked like the linkage was working, I still need to adjust it?

I'm asking because 1st gear is too fast for big snow falls, and you have to fight a bit to keep it straight. My wife could never use it (although thats not necessarily a bad thing :-) Otherwise, its still a great machine.

Thanks in advance for any advice.
Regards
Pete Reinhard

 

Inspect the rubber disk. That is the speed disc. It may be worn. This is connected to your linkage. When you put it into gear, it moves that rubber disk onto the driven disk.

Think of a tone arm on a record player. The record is moving at the same speed, but it goes faster depending on where it is on the record. Same idea in a speed disc/driven disc setup.

I'd say the disc is probably worn a bit or out of adjustment. I have yet to nail down the adjustment on my 1965 Murray/Craftsman (see my posts), but I did get 1st gear back mostly by cleaning and adjusting the linkage. I'd suspect the same here.

Yes, Toro makes a good machine.

 

Does the rubber disk move from close to the center of the metal disk (1st gear) to out near the edge (3rd gear)? The speed should decrease as the rubber disk moves towards the center of the metal disk. If you need to slow it down further, adjust the linkage so that the rubber disk moves even closer to the center of the metal disk.

 

Hello
Thanks to both of you for the reply.
When I last looked at it, the wheel did indeed move from the inner disk to the outer when the gear lever was changed from 1 to 3. So I figured it was working. However, when running, I can barely tell the difference between 1 and 3, and 1 is too fast. So the difference must be slight. (I'll bet an Ariens has a more dramatic difference between gear settings! I'd like1st gear to crawl, and 3rd to fly). In any event, I'll adjust the wheel to bias it to the smaller region of the disk. The snow season has almost ended here in the N East (can't happen soon enough - very hard winter - burned a lot of oil, moved a lot of snow) so I'll check it out during winterization.

I'm new to this site. Its a great resource.
Thanks.

 

I can tell you on my '65 Craftsman that speed #4 is pretty fast .

The machine can run away from you. My neighbor's 1994 5 HP Craftsman has a #6 speed for transport. That's wickedly fast .

You should feel the difference between the two. I'm betting your speed disc is out of adjustment or worn out. Should be readily available from anyplace that handles Toro's parts.

 

I think adjusting it to closer to the center will help fix the problem. There really should be a noticeable difference, but if the disk was worn out, your problem would be lack of speed/not pulling well. Since it is apparently pulling well/too fast, I think you have an adjustment problem.