That is an older flathead Robin engine. The "85" is just part of the model #, not the year. That may be about right, though. You can look on the deck behind the engine and find a silver tag with the model and serial number of the Snapper deck (as opposed to just the engine) and then look that up the Snapper site to find exactly what you have. You will also find the owner and parts manuals there. Go to www.snapper.com and click "literature." If you have the bag on and the chute is not plugged, the mower should always bag the grass. Your chute just got plugged. This can happen, especially with wet grass. If bagging is your - ahem - bag, then you might want to see what kind of blade you have under there and get the one with the "winglets" that bolt on to provide extra lift. That seems to prevent a lot of clogs by increasing the force through the chute. As for the drive speed lever: no, it should stay in the speed you select. The little bumps on the lever's panel are there to hold in gear, but there should be a spring behing that panel to hold it - maybe that's missing? Or else the adjustment slider down near the driven pulley's bracket is loose, allowing the driven pully to wander on the drive wheel (turntable). The tubing protruding from the side - do you mean from the side of the engine? Maybe that's the oil dipstick tube. I hope you actually have a dipstick in it! Otherwise, I'm having trouble thinking of what it would be. These are good machines that are very serviceable and still are produced new today with few changes (the engines have changed, of course). Especially if you are bagging, there is no reason it won't be productive for you.

The big problem is not with the absolute accuracy of the numbers, but rather in comparisons of various products. For instance, the Robin EH18V on my Snapper is nominally rated at 6hp, whereas the Briggs Quantum on a Craftsman mower can be rated as high as 6.75hp. The obvious conclusion any normal buyer would have is that the Robin is terrible value since the engine itself costs way more and makes significantly less power. Of course that's not true: the Robin makes about 50% more power than the Quantum, whether they are both on a test bench or on a mower or wherever. BTW, this is essentially the same Quantum engine that was rated at 5hp a decade or so back. So these issues make it impossible for the average consumer to accurately compare mowers and engines. Unlike the issue of absolute power accuracy, this is a real problem for consumers. If these were cars we were discussing, we'd be talking about the difference between the power of a base-model V6 Camaro and an LS1 Z28 - imagine if those two cars were rated at the same power! I think you'll find a _big_ (as in: ginormous) difference in the way some "high-end" engine companies rate their engines and the way others do. Kohler, Robin, Kawasaki, and Honda are examples of engines whose ratings are within the realm of believability, even though they won't make their nominal rating on a mower in the field. You can reasonably compare engines from this companies and assume that a 6hp Robin, Honda, or Kawasaki are pretty close in terms of actual output, and ditto for the 5hp Hondas and Kawasakis. That, more than anything else, is what we need. Finally guys, I think you all are giving a bigger break to at least some engines than they deserve. The assumption here is that all these engines will keep developing more power if they spin faster than the allowable blade speed. That's not the case for a lot of engines, probably most especially the L-head engines. For instance, a Briggs Quantum 12J800 torque graph published by B&S themselves shows it making 3.655hp at both 3000rpm and 3200rpm (this has to be calculated from the torque and rpm). In other words, that's about the peak output and it's only going to be lower at higher rpms. This may not be true for many OHV engines, because they have much more efficient chambers. But the point is that the power misnomers are not just a case of rating the engine on the test bench at a much higher rpm that allowed on an actual mower. And there's no "accessory" that can fudge the power rating from 3.65hp to 6.75 - mufflers and "cooling" don't cut power in half! It's really a case of companies using whatever rating they feel like using without any basis in reality, in order to achieve some marketing goal. BTW, how often are the ratings we're complaining about assigned by the engine company vs the mower company? That might have a lot to do with the problem.

thanks Matt and LawnmowerDan for your opinions, they helped. I knew the reviews were not good on this mower, but for the price (actually got it for $ 250), it was worth the risk. I just picked up the mower today and it looks and runs like almost new. The previous owner took good care of it. Matt - and yes it was lightly used on one lawn. The engine alone makes the mower. The Robin engine is very strong and quiet. Dan, I am fairly handy with mechnicals, so I will start to study the Snapper drive system. If anyone has any tips with working on the Snapper drive system, let me know. Matt indicated that the Snappers are repairable.

Loger, I dont remember the post where I read these remarks. It appears that some of the problem comes from when the tiller is not stored inside and water gets into the clam shell gear box, or it not being lubed properly. I under stand there is a shift rod that can come loose inside the transmission, also the #35 chain that drives the wheels can break. My son has a till of a different brand, but looks like mind. His is older than mine and has had no gear or chain problems. (only carb problems, he does not use his as often as I use mine). He has a friend with a tiller almost like ours. His developed a leak where the to clam shell meet on top and the trany filled with water and he kept using it till it broke. He repaired it but it was a nasty job. I will try to post a picture of mine showing it is much like the one you were asking about. It is a counter rotating tine, so the wheels spin going forward. ( I always till as deep as it will go. Also note that I have a rope tied to the front of it to drag things around the lawn and garden which puts added stress on the #35 drive chain. I dont think it has been rained on in the 9 or 10 years I have owned it so I expect there is no water in my gear box. Larry