Tightening would give a longer throw. Whenever I check the belts, I make sure there is sufficient slack with the belt disengaged. When pulling the lever to engage, I want the belt to loose its slack about 70% of the way through the pull. The extra 30% of tightness of the belt gives a little added pressure of the pulley.

lakeguy43 There's nothing like blowing snow on an open driveway at a temp of 10 or below degree day with the wind blowing 10-20 miles an hour. I have to wear a full snowmobile suit with helmet and stoke the wood stove up to the max, to warm up, while blowing snow. It's a real weather experience. We get a couple white-outs every month during the winter from the winds. We have miles of open fields everywhere. Only place you don't have open ground is where the homestead is located. That's surrounded by your grove of trees. Recently State had surrounding towns install warning lights forbidding vehicle travel when these conditions exist. The fine, if they have to come and pull you out of the ditch, is $1,000.00! The funny part is, if you don't go into town, you can drive all over and not get fined, because you never crossed the warning light. It's a crazy world!

Yes, i hsve seen it before--on this very starter. Previously, like last year at this time, the very same thing happened to it, and it screecched when applying the start button. I did finally get it fixed and working, but this year, the spot welds that hold the mtg. plate to the starter broke apart. Normally, both sides of the mounting plate had closed, round holes on both sides of the plate, and the bolts would stay tight. They had worked loose, is what gave me the trouble last winter. This year, the top holes in the mounting plate didn't have closed edge holes, and the bolts worked loose, until the starter body fell off the mounting plate, as described above. I was told that the top holes were slotted to be open around 20 degrees of the top holes, sort of U-shaped instead of being closed loops. This was so an uneducated fixer at Sears could remove the 2 bottom bolts, and slide the starter bracket and starter down and off, and the mechanic wouldn't have to remove the gas tank, or anything else in the way. Top bolts are phillipps type holes in the heads.. Not eggzactly good for tightening the bolts.Bottoms have hex heads. Bottom holes are aligned right.

dynamike59 Just for the fun of it, I called Ariens Tech Support to ask why the handles were changed from being below the grip to above the grip. The person I spoke with said that was done back in the 70's before his time, and never thought about it. I then told him what Ariens said to me about what would happen if you lifted up the machine from the front with the engine running and the handles were below the grips. Before I could continue, he came right back and said it would probably activate both the auger and the forward motion, resulting in a real safety problem. I then described my experience where when I was going up a steep driveway and made the mistake of letting the left (Drive) handle snap up, not realizing the drive would go into freewheeling, pushing me backwards down the driveway to the street. His suggestion was that I should have turned the machine at a right angle to the hill before releasing the drive handle (which I learned real quick). Based on our conversation, there was no doubt in his mind that having the handles facing up is much safer than down, in the event someone picks up the auger by the front with the engine running. I know my engine runs fine tipped up on the grips. I did not do this with the intension of sticking my hand in the auger area. I was looking at something else at the time. I also tipped the auger up from the grip end, and was not standing in front of the machine. When Ariens told me about the safety issue with the handles facing down, I could just picture what it would be like if someone were standing in front of the machine, and lifted it up by the auger frame with the engine running. It would be like being attacked by a wild animal. This is why I remember so vividly about what Ariens told me. Take care, and let the readers beware. Charles Ranheim