Snowblower Auger Stops When Hits Snow – Solved

A snowblower that won’t move the snow is worse than useless. On the upside, this is a pretty easy problem to fix. I’m a mechanic and an auger that lacks oomph is common in my workshop

Snowblower augers commonly stop in the snow because the auger drive belt lacks sufficient tension. Adjusting or replacing the auger belt will most likely fix the issue

In this post, you’ll learn why your snowblower auger stops in snow and what you can do to fix it right now!

Snowblower Auger Lacks Power

Moving snow is tough work, a misbehaving snowblower just makes the whole task frustrating. I know what it’s like, snow has to be moved, so it’s fix the blower or start shoveling. Forget the shovel, for now, I think we can fix this.

The auger commonly fails to turn in heavy snow because the belt used to transfer engine power to the auger, is too loose. We simply need to adjust, so that the belt is taught when it’s supposed to be. Although this is the most likely cause, it’s not the only possible cause. Belt wear is another common cause of poor auger performance, and so we’ll cover checking belt condition in this post too.
 
But first, we’ll look at the most likely cause, (loose belt) and how you can fix it.

How The Auger Belt Works

Don’t worry, I’ll make this super fast. I know you want to move snow not become an expert snowblower mechanic.

We are only concerned with the larger belt positioned farthest from the engine, the auger belt.

The auger belt setup commonly employs the following:

• Belt
• Pulley on the engine crankshaft
• Pulley on the auger assembly
• Tensioner arm with adjustable idler pulley
• Auger lever (at handlebars)
• Auger lever cable/rods

With the belt assembly at rest, the auger belt is loose and no power is transferred to the auger.

Pulling and holding the auger lever causes the tensioner arm with attached idler pulley to apply tension to the belt consequently transferring engine power to the auger. Simple setup, right?
 
Next, we’ll need to access the belt and check belt tension.

Accessing Snowblower Auger Belt

First, we need to make working on our snowblower safe and to do that we’ll need to remove the plug wire. Pull and twist to remove, set it away from the spark plug.

The process for removing the belt cover is as follows:

Checking Snowblower Auger Belt Tension

If it is loose, it will require adjustment. But before we go to the trouble of adjusting the belt, let’s check its general condition first, no sense adjusting a spent belt.

Checking Auger Belt Condition

Most snowblower auger belts are V-type belts. So-called because of their shape. Belts work really hard and are often forgotten about until there’s a problem.

Check your belt and replace it if it looks spent. Typically as a belt wears it suffers from one or more of the following issues:

As the V aspect of a V belt wears, it allows the belt to sit further into the V of the pulley. This causes the belts inside diameter (ID) to become larger. The larger ID causes less tension on the belt

Less tension on a belt (loose) causes slip and heat which causes a belt to wear prematurely or glaze.

One of the best ways to improve snowblower performance is to replace the belts. Many snow blowers don’t see a ton of action and while the belts may not be worn they do get hard with age and a hard belt causes slip.

In the workshop, I routinely examine and replace the drive belt if needed while replacing the auger belt.

Adjusting Auger Belt Tension

Adjusting belt tension takes little effort and only a few wrenches. Some snowblowers may allow for two ways to adjust the auger belt tension. The usual way is to adjust the handlebar control lever cable. The second way is to adjust the idler pulley.

We’ll adjust the handle lever cable in the following guide. The process is as follows:

Replacing Auger Belt

Replacing the belt isn’t as tough a job as you might imagine. You already know how the setup works. Understanding what will aid in the replacement procedure.

Mission-critical is belt length, getting this wrong will mean you’ll be back visiting this problem soon if not immediately.

A belt that’s too long will either not work at all or as you know, slip. A slipping belt may cause the belt to burn and smoke

A belt that’s too short is bad also. A short belt causes the auger to turn even though the lever is in the off position. It’s not uncommon for this problem to present only when the engine pulleys warm up.

Ordering Belts

All belts are coded and also sport and measurement. I don’t advise measuring the belt, that rarely works out. It’s best to check with the manufacturer and order by code.

I like to fit the best quality Kevlar belt I can because I don’t want to come back and visit this again any time soon.

It is possible to read the code from the old belt. However, be mindful, unless you know the machine, a previous repairer could have fitted an incorrect belt. (bitter experience and I don’t want to talk about it)

Confident you have the correct belt at hand, the replacement process looks like this:

Fit the new belt as follows:

You may also consider replacing the drive belt while replacing the auger belt. It is only a little extra work and won’t cost a ton. You can check out the snowblower drive belt replacement here.

Snowblower Troubleshooting