Snow blower wont drive after repair - video

I'm out of ideas. I replaced the friction wheel ring and my drive belt on a Craftsman snow blower. When I tested the snow blower today it wont drive. It starts to drive but when I depress the drive lever further down it wont go anywhere. The friction plate spins but when I depress the drive lever all the way and the friction wheel makes contact with it, the friction plate stops spinning. The parts I replaced are all OEM. In the video the drive shaft rod isn't attached but I get the same behavior if I attach it. .

Here's a video of what happens. https://photos.app.goo.gl/MvdzRFp5SQFzKiB68

 

From what I can see you did not assemble it correctly. The drive wheel must slide to the other side of the friction plate in order to go in reverse. Fix that and I think everything else will work fine.

 

Thanks, I noticed the same thing, after I made this video, and ended up assembling it correctly. I still get the same behavior. When the friction wheel touches that silver plate, the plate just stops spinning

 

Have you got the right tension on the cables or connecting rod.
Years ago, I had to rebuild then transmission on an Arian's.

 

That's what I'm thinking but I'm not a small engine person. It has to be something simple that I'm missing. I used this video to do the job https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6V2bVKqUSY.... It seemed easy enough but it's not working. I have to imagine if the plate stops spinning when the friction wheel touches it, then somehow I have to make the pulley stronger so it will keep the wheel spinning. If I engage the handle and turn the wheel by hand the wheels will spin. Since you mentioned transmission, I did have a hard time getting the wheels off and I hit them pretty hard in order to get them off. So maybe I broke something else. I don't know.

 

It should be keyed to the engine shaft. Maybe it broke? If so, I can picture it spinning without load and by hand.

 

That's a thought. I wasn't aware of this key. I'll take it apart tonight and take a look.

 

Figured it out. I took this drive pulley off and spread apart the spring. I guess the extra tension it created was enough to get it working. It seems amazing that such a small amount of tension it created would fix it, but I'm glad it did. We'll see how it does when there's actual snow but for now it's working.