Just had to share! The LittleTractor snow-fighting team is officially 2/3rds functional! Got Wally for pushing snow, and I FINALLY got Littletractor’s blower to work again!
I changed the blower belt early in the fall, but didn’t actually DO a runtime test on it… So first big snowstorm shows up in November, I go and flip the PTO switch and BAM! Off pops the belt! Three times I’ve tried getting it to work since November, the first two when it popped off it twisted on the drive pulley so I had to actually pull the blower and reroute the belt… I could NOT figure it out! Everything spun freely, nothing was binding, no twists in the belt (at least, not until I hit the PTO)… Finally, today I got out to the garage for a couple hours because it was above -19 c out there, I pulled the blower off, pulled off the idler and the main drive pulley so I could reroute the belt AGAIN, put everything on, hit the switch and BAM! off pops the belt… Put the belt on, checked the routing around the mule drive and the PTO, everything looked like it should… Hit the switch and BAM! off pops the belt. THIRD time I put the belt on, I figured, screw it, I’m not going to take all the time to tighten up the mule drive like I usually do (usually wind it in about an inch and a half). Instead, I only tightened it about 1/2″. Fire up Littletractor, hit the switch, and [Insert chorus of singing angels here!] it SPINS!
So the whole time since November, my problem has been that I’ve been tightening down the belt TOO MUCH! I knew my old one was stretched, because it tended to pop off a LOT, but I didn’t think it was THAT stretched! Took Littletractor out and cleaned off that patch of the neighbours’ sidewalk that I’d been avoiding because Wally’s blade gets bunged up between their hedge and the light post, and Little performed flawlessly!
Whoo hoo!! Woot, woot! I couldn’t be happier!
Well, okay, I COULD, but what it would involve is a valve job on Bror and the attachment of a certain front-end loader to him! THEN the LittleTractor snow removal team would be complete!