[haze5736]

I recently purchased an 1810 with manual lift snowblower. It has spring assist and the previous owner installed an electric lift mechanism.

I'm trying to figure out how much to pre-load the spring. The manual states to tighten until the crowned washer crushes. Well, that washer was crushed eons ago.

The pre-load I used was not enough. The electric lift can't bring the blower back up. I don't want to keep going through the trial and error process because when the electric lift can't lift, I need to unbolt the electric lift and lift and block the blower manually. And it's getting cold around here and I have long since lost my tolerance for working outside in the cold. I also don't want to overload the spring and cause it to prematurely wear out.

If there is some sort of rule of thumb that would be great. Otherwise, it's back to trial and error.