Last year, a friend asked me to repair his large snow thrower/ blower, said the starter wasn't turning the flywheel--was just grinding-but not turning it!

so, i removed the starter assembly, and he was right--all of the teeth were worn off the gear on the starter. I ordered a new gear, and installed it and all was well---or so i thought. It finished out the rest of the winter.

Late this summer, he called and said the starter had fallen clean off, when he tried to start it prior to snow time! I went to see, and yes, the main body of the starter had fallen off the mounting plate, onto the garage floor! Now, i was beginning to think the bad fairies had been at work, during the hot weather, but that was not the case. I picked the brain of another friend who works at a lawn mower repair place. He told me i had better check for a sheared flywheel key! He said the mounting plate that broke off, was only spot welded to the starter body, so a sheared fly key would not break something in the engine, or starter. He said he'd seen a case where the cam had been broken when trying to start an engine with the same symptoms. I wondered why that starter had only 3 skimpy spot welds holding the body to the base! Said something about a "Sacrificial weld".

So now--you are probably wondering how the flywheel key could be sheared just by plowing snow with a snow thrower.

Ahh, haa! Just pick up a dog chain, a dry, hard branch, a leash for the dog, or some old rope. The reel stops, the engine stops fast, the flywheel tries to keep moving, and bang!! there goes the key, and after that something else breaks, and yer off to the races! By: Rusty Jones