105 struggles after 2hrs of snowthrowing
 

Hey guys, hopefully you can give me some insight as to what may be going on. I'm pretty new to tractors/snow blowers/throwers/etc and this was my first full attempt at doing my driveway.

Preface, my 105 ran great all summer mowing my yard for hours at a time and I keep it garaged in the winter.

I was very gloriously throwing snow all over the place last night for about 1.5-2 hours with my cc105 and cc36 snowthrower. Feel free to critique my process as I have no idea if im "doing it right"

I'd throw a line of of the white stuff, disengage my auger, lift thrower, bring my throttle down a bit, never less than half, reverse, drop thrower, WOT, engage auger, do another line.

After maybe an hour an a half i noticed my auger was not disengaging. Foolishly I kept cleaning snow, and it backfired maybe twice in the next 20 minutes and started bogging. I turned it off and finished with a shovel.

I was able to adjust the pto clutch to get it to disengage but I'm wondering what happened?

It is VERY possible the belt is too tight as I struggle with the idea of "tighten it until slack is out of the belt, then tighten it 3-3.5 more turns." The belt is rubber, it always feels like there is slack! Ever since I installed the thrower, somethings chirps a bit on startup of the engine. maybe the clutch was already slipping a bit into engagement. it just seems weird I would have to adjust it all of a sudden.


Would an overly tight belt be overworking the engine?

The front end of the 105 was covered in snow and ice and things started working very slowly like when starting the tractor back up, the brake safety switch would take about 5 seconds to realize it was engaged to start. Maybe some vital part was iced up causing overheating or moisture was getting into my engine? Air filter was on pretty tight though. Maybe a frozen throttle cable or something?

Sorry for the novel, thanks!

Chris

I am by no means an expert with the Cub snow blowers but I would guess you may have sucked some snow into the air filter. I think I would keep it wide open the whole time you are using it rather than backing off. I also would not disengage the clutch just to back up. They way I look at it every time you engage it you are wearing it out. Sounds like you had it pretty well iced up. I'm sure others with more knowledge than me will chime in. :beerchug:

I agree on what Sam said, keep the pto on .Chirping sound may be a blown headgasket.

thanks for the replies guys. I'm going to double check the filter housing, adjust the pto clutch to manual spec, make sure my drive sheave is aligned properly, recheck belt tension and give it another go. Still a whole other half of a driveway/garage bay to clear out!

Leave the blower running all the time. When moving the components warm up, melt ice and snow. When it's cold the water will freeze, them make them hard to start up again. Just leave it on. NEVER engage the PTO at WOT. Ever. It's hard on everything. Engage it at the lowest possible throttle setting that doesn't stall the engine.

As far as backfiring, I'm with Sam. Possibly water into the intake, water in fuel, or a motor that just needs tuned up. I have never found any attachment that works a motor harder than a snowblower. If the motor needs attention, it will show up when blowing snow.

You probably just wore the clutch a little starting and stopping it so much.

Not likely.

It is possible that things were freezing. Like mentioned, tune up the motor, maybe drain and refill the fuel tank and bowl on the carb. Don't give up! :beerchug:

I agree; with any PTO implement its best to engage at low throttle then increase. Just may as well leave it on as you are using it; it'd be like shutting a mower deck off just to back up when mowing.

I agree with the others, leave it on all the time. If you're worried about working it at WOT when backing up and now throwing snow, you could back the throttle off a bit but leave the PTO engaged or remember that these motors were designed to be run at 3600rpm so don't be afraid of hurting it. If there was no load on the motor then it's usually not a good idea to run WOT but with the thrower on, you're ok in that regard. :beerchug:

Great tips guys, thanks again. My thought process was more about fuel efficiency, if I lessen the load on the engine and reduce throttle when not blowing/backing up maybe I can save some gas but it's probably not worth it the effort and sounds like it may be damaging. I was definitely WOT when engaging the PTO. I'll be sure to stop that.

You burn more fuel revving it up and down. Fuel mileage 101. Stop and go driving= bad mileage. Highway driving=constant speed=good gas mileage.

Is that a fair comparison? good mileage from highway driving comes from overdrive gearing that brings the RPM of the engine down for a long time. Less effort to move a moving car, less throttle, less air, less fuel used over time.

In stop and go, the engine is probably seeing higher revving through gears working harder to get you to get you moving, which is where the worse fuel economy comes from.

So when I think of comparing a car to WOT on my tractor, I imagine max RPM, max air, max fuel being burnt hence my thoughts about bringing throttle down when not loading.

But admittedly I really don't know anything about tractor engine design. Maybe its more efficient at WOT? I picture the engine sitting there pegged from being WOT, waiting to have that energy used for working my Hydro pump or for PTO and its being wasted if not doing either. Again, I don't know if that is right. That's just how I imagine it.