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I've been watching Craigslist like a hawk since people tend to get rid of their snowblowers now that the snow is all gone. I think I nabbed a pretty good deal. Picked up (ha, with the help of 3 other people) a Bolens FMC 524 today for $75. The engine turns and the auger moves as well, new tires, minor sun fading and very little rust in the scoop and thick pads.

Check out the attachments. How did I do? From what I gather, it's an 80's vintage but beyond that, I can't find anything online. Does anybody have a owners manual, parts manual or engine diagram?

I'm not at all familiar with Tecumseh engines. I know this one hasn't run in 5 years (previous owners just didn't use it but they had maintenance done on it). The spark plug looked good, a nice brown color on it and very little residue. I put my finger over the hole and rotated the engine, I didn't feel much compression though, not anywhere near as much as a 2 cycle I've been playing with. I took my finger off and saw a good puff of gasoline vapor. Hopefully this won't be an issue. I've got many months to pop the head cover off and take a look at the valves and piston though.

Any tips with maintenance? I thought of replacing or topping off the gearbox oil but I only see the drain plug. I'll take a look at the belts once I see how to get in there.

You have a project that may payoff if you do the work. First put a couple of squirts of oil in the cylinder and turn the engine over about ten times. No plug in. Squirt some carb cleaner in the cylinder and put the plug back in and start the engine at half throttle. What happens next will tell you and us where to go. I am assuming you checked for spark already.

I figured people were selling similar HP, inch and age for $200-500+ in working condition, $75 seems like a good deal even with some elbow grease

I tried getting spark out of it today but with different combinations couldn't get anything. I turned the key on and tried then disconnected the kill line with the key on and didn't get any spark.

I gave up and turned to the oil, draining out the pure black oil and putting in some spare old 20W-50 I have, rotated the engine a bit and let that drain out to get some crud out. I'll put some 10W-30 in it before I go to run it.

I might have some spare time tomorrow to take another look at it. I might pull the shroud off and see if it has points or CDI and investigate spark that way. I still haven't been able to find a manual for the engine or the blower itself.

Give us the model numbers and I'm sure I can get a manual.

All I have is:

FMC Bolens Model 524 (serial is in the first picture in the OP)
Engine: HS50 670730 SER 91830

This is my first Tecumseh and I'm not at all impressed, especially when comparing to the Briggs I've worked on.

Try these sites for engine manuals or part numbers.
Lawn Mower Parts, Small Engine Parts & Much More! | PartsTree.com - Briggs, MTD, Toro, Cub Cadet, Husqvarna, Troy-bilt...
http://www.tecumsehpower.com/CustomerService/OperatorManuals/index.php
http://www.smallenginesuppliers.com/html/engine-specs/tecumseh/Tecumseh_quick_reference.pdf

Ah, yes! Your first link tells me it is likely a ignition coil. I've not had luck with them lately but I'll take the shroud off and see if I can get a handle on this wiring and check gaps.

Thanks for the links I'll try to keep this thread up to date but considering I have 7 months to get it running, replies may take a while.

Well I pulled the flywheel shroud off and was able to get the head off as well. I saw a thick coating of carbon so I took a wire brush and got the caked stuff off. After I cleaned the piston, I noticed some holes appeared that seemed to get a tiny bit larger with a bit more wire brush action. I tried searching online and couldn't find holes quite like it. The thing that gets me is that the biggest hole is on the opposite side of the spark plug. From research, detonation occurs closest to the spark plug.

I also took pictures of the cylinder wall, it felt pretty smooth all around. Any thoughts on how it looks? Do I have to get a new piston?

Sorry I have not gotten back to you, had something's that needed attention. Try pushing the piston in all directions. If there is very little movement the piston and rings should be good. Those small holes you are talking about don't concern me at all. Normal wear. What number is on that Champion plug, doesn't look right, but could be just wear.

No problem on time, I have 7 months before I need this running

I put the piston at TDC and tried to wiggle it in the cylinder, I couldn't move it. But, there was a slight coat of oil between the piston and cylinder that seemed to have a reflection that was ever so slightly displaced/moved when I pushed hard on the piston.

It seems like the valves move at the appropriate time so I just need to see why I'm not getting spark. Is it common for these coils to go bad? I know this unit was left outside a while. The flywheel and inside of the shroud is completely rusted, I'll probably paint them before assembling again.

*EDIT*
I believe the plug is right. J8C or something. I'll double check tomorrow.

Is the coil a CDI, or do you still have points? If it is CDI disconnect the small wire on the coil and see if you have spark. If no spark replace the coil, yes it is not uncommon for them to go bad.

I haven't actually been able to get the flywheel off yet. I can't find my darn socket extender or good ratchet. They probably ran off together. I did doublecheck the spark plug and it's J8C.

I think this engine has a CDI coil, I don't think it has points on it. I came across a website saying they made this model in 83 and 84 and the parts diagram on parts tree shows this part number:
IGNITION COIL CDI FIT Tecumseh 30560A, LAV series, Stens 460-063, Oregon 33-363 | eBay

Let's check the coil before you pull the flywheel. Take the small lead off the coil. Attach the spark plug and spin the flywheel by hand. Careful that you don't pinch your hangers. With the plug touching a good ground you should see a spark if the coil is good. You can do this without the head on.

Too late I just took the flywheel off and found out that it's a points system. I didn't realize how it came apart so I just started unbolting and had it in my hand when I realized I didn't have to unbolt it to check the gap

I'm wondering if the coil is still bad, the flat pieces of metal that make up the... pickups(?) are rusted and can easily be separated with a fingernail. The points look super clean with no rust inside at all, the spring mechanism is... springy. I'm going to look up a tutorial on how to gap these things.

If I had the points in my hand I would just replace them and the condenser now and take that out of the equation. Coil could be bad, but let's do one thing at a time. There is one other way to go at this now that you are this far. That would be to eliminate the points and install a CDI magneto. With this you would be eliminating the points system and replacing the coil at the same time. That is the way I would go.

I took your idea and did some research. Apparently I'm out of luck though as these older 80's engines with the coil inside the flywheel (3-legged coils) can't be converted I tried adjusting the points to .020" a few times and spun the flywheel and still got no spark, even with the kill switch removed. Maybe I should just order new points, condenser and coil to eliminate all possibility. The coil and consenser are both highly rusted, it's a miracle that the points are clean. I'm glad though, it seems easy to adjust the points with the head off, there's a little arrow on the cam lobe that tells you where it's supposed to be.

Well I tinkered with it a bit longer. This is my first time messing with points so I just kind of had to stare at it and figure out the mechanics of it. Once I had a rough idea, I realized I was adjusting the wrong things. I removed the kill wire entirely then centered the whole assembly which is for timing (which I'll have to sort that out later) then I moved onto the actual points adjustment. I read that someone said to put a piece of paper between the points and let them fully close then pull the paper out a few times. A lot of crud came off when I did that. I adjusted them to .020" and put the flywheel back on and gave it a spin... I got a bright blue spark!

So, it looks like I'll move onto the carb once I sort out wiring. I already have the carb pulled and set aside. There's a putrid smell it has. I took the bowl off and some nasty green/brown gas came out. It seemed to varnish and leave a sticky coating on everything. Of course the float bowl gasket had solidified and started cracking. Also, the piece that the governor connects to to change speed is extremely sticky. So much so that moving the idle/fast lever doesn't swivel the valve on the carb. I might try to soak the carb in something.

I think the ignition is all sorted out now. Got it set so the points open at .034" BTDC and the full gap of the points is .020". Got the kill switches hooked up and now the key works. I've got a carb kit on the way and I've been cleaning the body of the carb, nothing is sticky anymore! Simple Green really gets the varnished gas gone.

I will be posting updates soon

Well, I got everything back together after "adjusting" the points, cleaning the carb and whatnot. I went to start it today and it fired but it runs very rough. With it on full throttle and no choke it ran like it was on idle or just slightly above. I played with the needles, the choke and the plug gap but couldn't get it to run any better. I'm afraid I might have screwed up the timing.

So... in an effort to get things straightened out and narrowed down by someone that knows more than I do, here's what I've done:
I got the snowblower, it hadn't been run in 5 years. Varnished gas all over inside the carb and tank and it had no spark. After a day or two searching for manuals and coming up empty, I found enough forum information to move ahead and try to diagnose the ignition. After I got the flywheel off, I saw it was a points system. Not having ever messed with a Tecumseh engine, I went straight for that whole bracket that holds the points, condenser and coil onto the engine. After I took that off, I realized that whole bracket rotates to adjust timing.

I read some more online and here's what I did to try and get the bracket aligned:
I turned the crankshaft so the piston was at just before TDC on the compression cycle, grabbed my feeler gauges and combined 2 of them to make .031" gap between the top of the piston and the top of the head where the gasket goes. It's supposed to be .035" as per the tech manual. Then I rotated that bracket so that the points had just started to open and I tightened those 7/16" nuts down. Then at TDC I checked the point gap and it's at .020". At this point I rotated the crank so the points were closed and ran some paper in-between them to clean them. After that I got a nice bright blue spark just rotating the flywheel by hand.

I also got a carb kit and cleaned the carb completely, then adjusted the needles to varying between 1 turn out and 1.5 turns out, some settings made the engine run a little better but still not as good as it should.

So, I'm kinda lost and a bit frustrated. I really hope I don't have to take everything apart and get into the points again. Any suggestions I should try?

Forget the last post! I went down to the barn again and tinkered with it. I don't know why but I tried 3/4 turn out on the main jet and it went VROOOOOOOM, took off like it should. So I tried 1/2 turn and that was even better. It seems to bog down and recover a little with the auger running, it might be a pinch too lean now. But, it idles great, I think I have the idle jet at 1 1/2 or 1 1/4 turns out. I still want to flush the oil again, lube up the auger blades and see about replacing the lube in the gearbox. Plus a few minor cosmetic things.

I have $117.28 invested and it runs and functions pretty good :thumbsup: I'll post a video here tomorrow with a cold start and whatnot.

Nice job, but I hope you don't want to use it soon. If the unit has grease in the auger gearbox no need to replace unless you see evidence of water contamination. If it has oil, drain and put in a good 80-90 gear lug. Fill until it just starts running out in it's normal position.

Yea, I definitely don't want to use it soon There's a drain plug on the auger gearbox but no fill plug... go figure. I was thinking that since this beast is about 20 years old and has obvious evidence that it sat out in the elements for many years, it would probably be a good idea to change it out. Plus I have some spare 90w-140 that goes in my tiller gearbox. Video will come later today.

The drain plug you are talking about is the fill hole, according to your initial post pictures. That is where t he lube will run out as I stated previously. As I said I don't know if you have grease or oil. Stick a screwdriver in that hole to tell.

I stuck a nail in and it came out with what looked like oil/lube. I stuck the cone nozzle of the gear lube in and squeezed until it started running out (snowblower is level) and put the nut back on. I think I'll run it for a bit and then drain it out and put some more fresh stuff in. Might be overkill but oh well

Over kill, yes, but should be fine.

Any tips on grease zerks? The ones on the blades are covered in dirt. Should I blow them out with carb cleaner and then put grease in? What's a good way to clean them?

Here's the video I shot earlier today:
Update on the snowblower - YouTube

I've never had a Tecumseh, how's it sound?

Grease zerks, easy, wipe off with dry towel and add grease. No need to clean unless plugged. Sorry this old fart doesn't do YouTube, someone else will have to tell you how it sounds.

Looks Good Sounds Great, you should have a lot of hours of snow throwing with that...
Rivets has you covered on everything...
Grease it up with a moly, that stuff will not wash away with melting snow, your all set for Winter... :smile:KennyV

Pull the shear pins before you grease the auger zerks. Make sure it will spin free on the inner shaft, work it back and forth on the inner shaft as you grease it. Make sure it is free before putting the shear bolts back in and make darn sure you use proper shear bolts.

Thanks guys. Good tips on greasing. Truth be told, I still have yet to get a grease gun, but I will! The shear pins, I don't know if they're original or not. They're painted black but would it just be best to buy new ones? Are they all the same or do I have to get a specific torque or something?

If you're interested, I have a couple of threads on going through an engine and rebuilding some items on Craftsman snowblowers here: Restorationmen Forum Project How To's

Couple of things to note - I recommend using a brass wire brush on the piston and valves to clean off carbon. They won't scratch or cut like steel wire brushes do.
Check out any gear oil you put into the auger gearbox. You have a bronze gear in there and some of the GL5 oils will attack the metal. You want GL4 or (I can't remember the name) GL5 that doesn't attack bronze. Many manufacturers recommend using 30 weight oil so check what the mfg recommends.

Good luck and congrats. Looks like you have a good machine there.

Sorry I haven't posted lately. HCBPH, I looked over your threads and they are very interesting. Makes me wish I had more tools for better repairs

I thought I would pull out the snowblower since it's sat since the lats time I ran it. I was going to check out the electric start on it for giggles. I couldn't get it started though. I checked and there was gas but the plug was dry. After about 10-15 minutes of pulling and tinkering I checked gas again and realized there was only enough to barely cover the bottom. I added more and it fired right up. After re-adjusting the carb, I "drove" it around until it just died. I went to start it and it's completely seized. I cannot get any movement at all on the recoil or the PTO shaft. I heard no banging/scraping or any unusual sound prior to seizure, it just stopped. I'm wondering if I ran the engine too lean or something. Even now, 24 hours later, it's still seized. I was kind of hoping it was temperature-related.

I've heard of people putting MMO in the spark plug hole but I don't really feel like buying that just for this. How about some 10W30 or tranny fluid?

An update on the seized engine. I sprayed PB Blaster in the sparkplug hole and in the intake/exhaust ports to get at the valves & guides. Let it soak for 2 days and still no luck. Today I pulled the recoil off and got a ratchet & socket with a 8' steel tube and used leverage to rotate the engine. She turned! Rotated it a few times and it seems like everything is moving properly but I'll have to get a light and look in the plug hole. The engine is now free enough to turn with the recoil start but it seems stiffer than before.

Would the Tecumseh hm80 on my John Deere 826 snowblower also have points? Or not here's the model and serial.
Model: Hm80-155013f
Serial: 91940

Sent from my iPod touch using LMF

Mwh0428 said:

Would the Tecumseh hm80 on my John Deere 826 snowblower also have points? Or not here's the model and serial.
Model: Hm80-155013f
Serial: 91940

Sent from my iPod touch using LMF

Click to expand...

It would be best if you created your own thread but I'll still try to help you Looking at this:
Parts and Diagrams for Tecumseh HM80-155013F
It looks like it doesn't have points. BUT, the one closest to mine also said it didn't have points but mine does. Can you give an age on yours? Perhaps a picture to help determine?

You could also try to look at the flywheel with the starter removed. If the magnet is inside the flywheel then you most likely have points. If it's on the outside, you most likely have a CDI coil.

Nate, glad to see you got it running, not happy to hear about siezing. Now that you have it free, I would try this. (I am assuming that you have a 30W or 10W-30 oil in it)
Remove the spark plug and put some light weight oil in the cylinder. ( spraying oils like Power-lube, WD-40, fogging oil, etc. Will do find). Pull the engine over about 10-15 time, no plug or compression. We want to coat and lube the cylinder walls. Install spart plug, and start engine at a low speed. While it is running, at low speed, open the oil fill tube and set the cap on top. If it does not bounce up/down that is a good sign. It means that you have not scored the cylinder too bad. Run the engine at low speed for about 15 minutes and shut off. Repeat after cooling down for at least an hour. If the engine does not show signs of laboring or running hot, you may have gotten lucky and saved it. MWH----no points.

Rivets said:

Nate, glad to see you got it running, not happy to hear about siezing. Now that you have it free, I would try this. (I am assuming that you have a 30W or 10W-30 oil in it)
Remove the spark plug and put some light weight oil in the cylinder. ( spraying oils like Power-lube, WD-40, fogging oil, etc. Will do find). Pull the engine over about 10-15 time, no plug or compression. We want to coat and lube the cylinder walls. Install spart plug, and start engine at a low speed. While it is running, at low speed, open the oil fill tube and set the cap on top. If it does not bounce up/down that is a good sign. It means that you have not scored the cylinder too bad. Run the engine at low speed for about 15 minutes and shut off. Repeat after cooling down for at least an hour. If the engine does not show signs of laboring or running hot, you may have gotten lucky and saved it. MWH----no points.

Click to expand...

I had the carb and exhaust off so I decided to put some 10W 30 down the hole. Well, long story short, it's everywhere now I was tempted to take the shroud and head off before but now I have a reason to. It seemed to turn over easier after adding the oil. I have some other projects to work on so this will sit for a while until a rainy day where I feel like disassembling it again.

After 3.5 months I'm back! Had a lot of other small engine works and business stuff to deal with. Finally had a chance to pull the snowblower out from the back of the barn and pull the head on it. For those that don't want to read the other pages, here's a brief history:

Bought the snowblower for $75. Rebuilt the carb with all new parts, new fuel line & primer line, new spark plug, cleaned the piston & valves, and gapped the points. It ran extremely rough when I first started it, found out that it didn't like the stock 2-turns out on the mixture screw and ran great with about 1/2 turn out. Ran like this for a while and I put it away for storage. Weeks later I decided to pull it out and fire it up for the hell of it. Couldn't get it started no matter what I tried (speed adjustments, carb adjustments) then I realized that while it looked like it had gas in the tank, it wasn't enough to fill up the carb. Topped that off and it started great. Once I got the carb re-tuned, I started losing power for a second or two and then the engine just stopped. Went to restart it and the recoil wouldn't budge no matter how hard I pulled. I shoved it back in the barn and left it. I even tried pulling the recoil start the next day when the engine was dead cold, no movement at all. Got a wild hair another day and came back, pulled the recoil off and found a socket to fit the nut on the flywheel, put it on a ratchet and put a 6' pipe on the ratchet and it started turning pretty easily. Putting the recoil back on, it was still tough to turn but at least it turned. I put some 10W30 down the spark plug hole and after making a mess it seems to turn easier but not quite as easy as it used to.

Where I'm at today;
After pulling the head, I took pictures and felt the cylinder wall. Feels smooth to me but there are marks on it. Looking at old pictures, the cylinder wall looks pretty much exactly as it did before the seizure.
Here's a before seizure picture:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/464376/small_engine/Bolens Snowblower/Pictures/DSCF0258.JPG
And today:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/464376/small_engine/Bolens Snowblower/Pictures/DSCF1009.JPG

Moving the PTO, I see no slop in the rotation of it corresponding to the piston and valves. Putting the piston at TDC and trying to move it, it seems to have the very very faintest movement, just like it did before the seizure.

I haven't tried to start it yet. Is there anything I should be concerned about before trying? Is it possible it seized somewhere on the crankshaft or connecting rod? Perhaps the oil just burned out of the cylinder with a bad mixture and that caused the seizure?

Nate

It's entirely possible it's not the cylinder that was your issue. There have been issues with 8-10 hp Tecumseh's blowing the rod out by overreving. It's possible your issue could be on the bottom end.
It's entirely possible you have a loose rod bolt, something in the crankcase that got in the gear for the cam etc.
If it was mine, I'd pull the head again. with the piston as close to TDC as I could get it, I'd see how much play there is in the crank before you feel any movement. I'm not sure what the specs are and most times I do it by hand, but if total on the crank is moved more than 1 fin of the flywheel, I'd suspect something internal is going bad (like the bottom of the connecting rod). Unfortunately that's a disassemble the whole thing situation. If that checks out, I'd drain the oil and look for anything metalic and use a light (after tipping it) to see if anything foreign was visible in the crankcase.
IMO your cylinder looks reasonable based on what I can see, looks like it's more the crosshatch pattern from honing the cylinder.

Let us know what happens. Good luck

Thanks for replying Yea, I can definitely see the crosshatch pattern from a hone job moreso than any of the vertical marks. I've seen badly marked cylinders with visible and feelable groves but this cylinder is smooth, I can't feel anything.

When I had the head off, I did rotate the PTO by hand and look for any play between it, the piston and valves and I couldn't see any at all. However, I didn't have the piston at TDC when I did that, it was about halfway up the cylinder and I rotated the PTO in both directions several times.

I think my issue might have been oil. I checked the level now and I couldn't see any in the little hole/recess that you pour into. I drained a bit out and it looked pretty fresh, not black but not see-through either. What came out had no metallic shavings or specks in it. I put the plug back in and filled it up with oil, putting more in than what came out. I might have been low on oil when it seized, I'm not sure how that would have happened. Second, I cannot get my carb running right. The main mixture screw HAS to be all the way in (bottomed out) before the engine will even try to run. With it all the way in and the idle screw 1/2 turn in one direction from default (can't remember which way off the top of my head) it seems to run ok but has hesitation and doesn't feel smooth at higher RPM. I might have been low on oil and had a bad mixture that burned the oil out of the cylinder creating a lack of lube and boom, seizure?

I'll keep fussing with my carb. I bought a kit for it before the seizure and it looks like the new main needle is different than the old one but even putting the old one in makes no difference. I might just put all the old carb metal pieces back in and see if that helps. I know my carb is probably the cleanest one I own now and I did the timing, points and spark exactly as was stated in the Tecumseh manual.

The nights are getting colder... a certain urgency is coming

An update; I put all the old (stock) metal pieces back in my carb, instead of using the new ones in the carb kit I got. It's running pretty good now at near-default carb values. I think I'm at 1 1/4 turns out for the main and 1 turn out for the idle. Idles pretty good and no hesitation to full speed. Behaves just like other snowblowers I've seen on YouTube. There were 2 things that screwed me over and they were both in the aftermarket carb kit I bought. The first was the main needle, it was longer and had a more pointed tip to it. The second was that brass piece that the main needle goes into, it was EXACTLY the same except for one tiny hole towards the tip, so tiny it would be tough to get the tip of a sewing needle in it. The old stock one didn't have that. Also, the springs for the needles were slightly different, more thicker and it might have made it so I couldn't bottom out the screws fully. Everything else in the carb kit was great, I have no leaks or any issues with the gaskets but the metal pieces weren't exact.

TL;DR: Be careful with aftermarket carb kits, especially the needles and other metal pieces. Make sure they're the same exact, no extra holes, no extra threads, no difference in needle tip.


I still have some minor fine tuning but she starts great and runs properly now. I'll do another hot oil change and start focusing on other things like belts, shear pins and other wearable items.

I was going to edit the original post but I think the option is disabled. I contacted MTD a while back and they were able to supply me with a parts diagram for my model and it also applies to others (524, 726 & 832). Here's the link if anybody needs it:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/464376/small_engine/Bolens Snowblower/Bolens 524 Parts.pdf

When looking for parts, be sure to remove the spaces & dashes in the part numbers. Also, I found out that the drive belt was wrong for my model, instead of a 36" I needed a 35" and that fit perfectly.