MF35 broken starter and snowed in!

[twosocks90]

We got buried last night by snow and high winds. When I tried to start the MF35 utility (gas), I heard a clunk and then after that the starter just spins without engaging anything.

I pulled the starter and this is what I see. Am I missing the gear drive from the starter shaft or is something else going on here?

 

[Doofy]

Yes, the bendix teeth do appear to be missing.

 

[twosocks90]

I located a replacement starter drive at NAPA and someone is picking it up for me. I'll have to walk to his house in order to get it from him

Here's the question -- where did the broken gear go? Is it safely in the bottom of the oil pan or do I need to disassemble further in order to find it?

It must have broken into at least a couple of pieces and then fallen off the shaft, right?

 

[travlitt]

I located a replacement starter drive at NAPA and someone is picking it up for me. I'll have to walk to his house in order to get it from him

Here's the question -- where did the broken gear go? Is it safely in the bottom of the oil pan or do I need to disassemble further in order to find it?

It must have broken into at least a couple of pieces and then fallen off the shaft, right?

It wouldn't be in the oil pan. The fly wheel is external to the engine oil pan.

 

[Doofy]

More than likely it just split in half. You may be able to fish it out of the clutch housing with a magnet.

 

[shaeff]

There’s a plate with four bolts on it on the underside of the clutch housing. Remove that and you can look right up inside. My bet is that the starter gear pieces are laying at the bottom of the bell housing and when you pull that four-bolt cover, they’ll drop out.

 

[twosocks90]

It's back together and running. I didn't even try to find the broken part, just put it together and cleared the snow. Once the weather is better I will drop the clutch cover plate and see what I find.

As soon as the weather breaks, I also need to put the tire chains on. This heavy wet snow is just too hard to move through!

Thanks for the help.

 

[Doofy]

Thanks for the update. Glad you are back up and running.

 

[twosocks90]

Back in business. Just finished cleaning up what the road grader put across our driveway again.

I gotta say, for being nearly 50 years old, this is still a very useful machine. A little rough around the edges and not very pretty, but she gets the job done.

 

[shaeff]

Nice, nearly identical to my machine. How was it pulling the starter with the power steering lines in the way? I need to replace the bendix on mine, but figured I’d wait til warmer weather. Sometimes the starter doesn’t catch, gotta press the start button a few times til it does.

 

[twosocks90]

It was not bad. First, disconnect the ground from the battery then the hot wire from the starter. Next loosen the hose fitting where it connects to the PS but I did not have to disconnect it completely, just loosen it enough so it can move a bit. Pull the two starter bolts and wiggle the starter out of there. It's a minor pain but nothing serious.

Is the bendix the thing that pushes the starter drive gear out into the flywheel teeth? If so, that's the part I replaced on mine. It was not very difficult.

How big is your snowblower? I've been looking at snow blowers on CL but wasn't sure how wide a unit the tractor can handle.

 

[shaeff]

Nice, seems easy enough. Yep, the bendix is what kicks the starter gear out to engage the flywheel. I figured it wouldn’t be too bad. Just wasn’t sure if the distributor needed to be removed. I don’t feel like re-timing if I can help it, machine runs awesome right now.

My snowblower is a 6’ McKee Sno-lander 520. As long as your machine runs well and the governor is properly adjusted (very important), it’ll handle a 6’ blower no problem as far as power.

Does your machine have the shuttle shift? (Geared reverser). If so, that’ll help a lot because you can move pretty slowly in reverse. I have the shuttle, so I’m not sure how fast reverse is without it.

With the shuttle, you have reverse in first, second, and third for both hi and lo gears. That being said, for light fluffy snow I can hit up to 6” in 2nd low reverse and it’s not too fast. Real deep or wet heavy I use 1st reverse low.

My blower has a three blade fan in it, 24”. I keep reading that a four blade fan is better but I’ve had no issues. I plan to make an impeller kit for it, as it’s old and there’s a decent gap between the fan and housing. It’ll throw further with the gap closed, but as of now it throws 20ft no problem.

 

[twosocks90]

My snowblower is a 6 McKee Sno-lander 520. As long as your machine runs well and the governor is properly adjusted (very important), it handle a 6 blower no problem as far as power.

It sounds like a 6' blower is about all the tractor could run, and a 7' or 8' would be too much. Am I reading you right?

Does your machine have the shuttle shift? (Geared reverser). If so, that値l help a lot because you can move pretty slowly in reverse. I have the shuttle, so I'm not sure how fast reverse is without it.

Yep I have shuttle shift, so gears 1, 2 and 3 are available to me in reverse.

I'm going to keep my eyes open on auctions around here this summer and see if I can't find a deal. We normally don't get THAT much snow that a blower is necessary, but there are times when it would sure be nice.

 

[shaeff]

It sounds like a 6' blower is about all the tractor could run, and a 7' or 8' would be too much. Am I reading you right?

Yep I have shuttle shift, so gears 1, 2 and 3 are available to me in reverse.

I'm going to keep my eyes open on auctions around here this summer and see if I can't find a deal. We normally don't get THAT much snow that a blower is necessary, but there are times when it would sure be nice.

Yep, you got it. General rule of thumb is about 1 PTO HP/ft of blower (same goes for flail mower). If we had a hydrostatic tractor we could REALLY slow our travel speed and keep RPM up to use a larger blower.

I’m the same, we usually don’t get that much snow, but we’ve had a few storms that even with loaded tires, chains, cast wheel weights, AND the 550lb blower on the back i STILL couldn’t get enough traction to move the snow. The blower alleviates that problem.

1st low reverse, RPM pushing 540@PTO, and just chug along through it. Especially useful at the mailbox where the state plow dumps often 4’ of snow about 5’ wide in big storms. I just blow it up the bank. If I plow it, you can’t see pulling out of the driveway. So it’s either blow it away, or remove the plow and bucket it all up onto my property somewhere. That’s too time consuming.

I don’t use it all the time, but the times I do make it well worth it. I can’t remember whether I paid $500 for it or $800. I *think* it was $500.

The guy I bought it from had too fast of a reverse gear to run it in deeper snow, got tired of working the clutch all the time.