Basic Guide to Snow Blower Maintenance

A snow blower properly maintained will last for many years, providing great service and starting easily every time. There are challenges since it is one of the machines which has a lot of down time and needs clean oil and gasoline to continue running at optimum levels. We will review some of the requirements to maintaining a snow blower and provide a basic guide to snow blower maintenance in this post. We need to emphasize that every operator and consumer who plans to conduct their own snow blower maintenance should first read the service manual and follow all safety precautions before beginning any work. They are big, powerful and can damage material and people working on them easily. Be cautious and careful.

Basic Guide to Snow Blower Maintenance

The first step to maintenance in all situations is to disconnect the spark plug wire so that the engine cannot start by accident. This is critical and for your own safety.

• Change the Oil
• Inspect and Replace Belts
• Check scraper bars and skid shoes
• Change the spark plug
• Check shear pins
• check starter chord
• Fuel system maintenance
• Tighten all bolts

A few words about each area will help do it yourself consumers complete all maintenance issues:

Change the Oil: at least once per year and more often if you use your snow blower a great deal. Check your owners manual for recommended frequency.

Inspect and Replace Belts: replace any frayed or worn belts before they break in the middle of winter when it is really cold

Check scraper bars and skid shoes: and adjust them to ensure proper scraping of your driveway

Change the spark plug: at least once per two years or more often depending on the owners manual recommendations. Cleaning and regapping is also recommended each year.

Check shear pins: and replace any that are worn or in danger of shearing off. Grease the auger at the same time

Check starter chord: and replace as needed

Fuel system maintenance: Always use clean fresh gasoline, use gasoline products to reduce gum forming in the carb and clean the filter every year.

Tighten all bolts: vibration can loosen bolts from time to time. tighten all bolts that are visible.

The best time for snow blower maintenance is in the late spring, summer or fall when temperatures make it easier to work on these machines. A break down in cold weather is not fun at all especially if you need to shovel a lot of snow and complete repairs in freezing temperatures.