24" Murray snowblower belt replacement procedure

There's no way this is as complicated as I'm making it. I lost my auger drive belt on my Murray snowblower, but I don't see how to actually replace the belt. The tensioner is too close to the driven pulley to fit a belt through. Do I actually have to remove the entire auger housing to get the belt wrapped around the transmission?

 

Please post the model number. Belts are not hard to change.

 

I'll do that later. It's at home, and I am not.

The basic issue is that there's no visible way to get the belt around the driven pulley. The auger drive belt/transmission is on one side, and the lever that controls the tensioning pulley is on the other. There's roughly 1 millimeter between the tensioner and the pulley, so there's no way to fit a belt between them. The tensioner is welded in place, and a plastic spacer is keeping it from moving away from the pulley. The only other option I see is to remove the entire auger housing. I've seen that mentioned on these boards before, I'm just hoping that I don't have a machine that requires it.

The manual's instructions:
"Remove the belt from the pulleys" AND
"Replace the belt on the pulleys".

Ridiculous.

 

More info:

Owner's manual from Murray's site:
http://www.murray.com/documents/Owne...s/F031066C.pdf

See images 14-17 on page 5 and "How to remove the auger drive belt" on page 16. The number in parenthesis indicate items on the images on page 5.

"7. Remove the old auger drive belt (4) from
the auger drive pulley (10) and from the engine
pulley (11). Replace the auger drive
belt (4) with an original factory replacement
belt available from an authorized service
center.
8. Install the new auger drive belt (4) onto the
auger drive pulley (10) and onto pulley
(11)."

Image 14 is what it would look like from the front if the auger housing were removed, and #3 is the tensioner I was referring to. If look at the bottom of it, there's no space between it and the pulley, which probably means the housing has to come off, but that seems like an awful lot of work to replace a belt.

 

Ok, I figured it out. Just in case anyone else is in a similar spot:

The auger housing does have to come off, but it's not nearly as complicated as it sounds (or as easy as the manual makes it sound). Just remove the top 2 bolts on the sides and loosen the slotted bolts at the bottom. The two parts will fold away from each other and you'll have easy access to the pulleys.


now if they had just sent me the right belt...

Glad I could help me!

 

Back from Florida…facing 3 feet of snow. A stretched and useless belt…Unbelievable!! I searched for my manual but couldn't find it. As it turns out it would not have been any help. I puzzled over how I was supposed to fit the belt through such a small space… THEN I found your comments on how to change the belt. I'm so so so so so so GLAD that you took the time to post your discovery. How easy it was...I took off the four top screws (two on each side) and before I could loosen the two bottom ones the unit separated just like you described and made room for me to replace the belt. How sweet and how easy. Thank you thank you!

 

I am facing the same issue with an old Murray snow blower. Has anyone in this forum downloaded a copy of the manual referred to in the URL
http://www.murray.com/documents/Owne...s/F031066C.pdf

which is no longer supported on the Murray web site?

Thanks for your help

 

this long link may pop up a pdf for a typical murray small blower
http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&...57316858,d.b2I

or google sears 52475

sorry after looking at that manual it does not have belt replacement procedures in it.

 

The manual instructions ARE missing a step. The new belt goes on the Auger pully, then the Engine pully(this is a bear). Then there is supposed to be enough slack to enable you to put it around the center pully. There is not slack.
Somehow there has to be an adjustment to move the two pullys closer so I can install the belt. Is there an adjustment somewhere?
It is a Murray 620301x4D model. I do have the replacement belt from Sears.

 

There should be enough slack in the belt, because you need a certain amount of slalck to have the belt tensioner to work properly.
Sid

 

I see 2 murray/noma belts for blower augers which are close in size.
3526 is 30 1/8 and 3887 is 30 7/8. Do you know which you got?
edit: however I just looked at an ipl for a 620301x4c and looks like a different style of unit than uses the above belts.