The Sears Craftsman Snow Thrower:
Emblematic of America's Engineering Decline
Following is short essay of my experiences coddling & improving
the declining state of American engineering. Sears Craftsman had a
reasonable reputation until the 1970's or perhaps mid-1980's. Trends in
globalization, terrible salary in relation to cost of living (impossible
for Sears to hire competent/career floor staff on a high schooler's
wage), building more of their line abroad, cutting corners, etc. have all
contributed to the decline of their branding. Since they aren't manufacturers
themselves, name reputation -- along with service -- is really all they have.
It's not something they can afford to lose.
Following is a log of the various problems this lemon has given me
since I bought it. More than once I wanted to push it over a large
bridge, probably into the Mississippi River. There may yet be a
place waiting for it under the Washington Avenue Bridge (never say never).
Though at the rate things are going, my snow thrower in the end may just
catch fire and self-immolate.
Salaries relative to high cost of housing in the
Minneapolis/St. Paul area are abysmal. So while I researched snow
throwers somewhat, my choices were limited to
budget more than anything else. It needed to have respectable horsepower
and be able to make it through at least 12-18 inches of snow.
I settled on the 9 horsepower, electric start, 29-inch dual stage
unit: model number: 536.887990. It was delivered to my house in fall,
2001, and assembled (linkage, wheels, etc.) by a couple non-native
English speakers who weren't very chatty.
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Sitting in my driveway, with the belt cover removed.
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Winter 2001/2002
In late 2001, the tires went flat and would no longer hold air. I
removed them and brought them to Sears in Maplewood, MN, where they
mentioned that this was a known problem. They gave me new wheels, free
of charge.
By mid-winter some of the linkage rattled loose. The unit
vibrates quite a bit, and never ran very smoothly. I'd also noticed
that when using the electric start it made a loud whining sound
(more on that later) when I pressed the button and the starter engaged.
Winter 2002/2003
I think it was winter of 2002 when one of the linkage pieces which turns
the snow chute broke. The chute is quite difficult to turn, despite
the fact I keep it greased. I suspect that eventually something
structural will break -- but this was a basic repair with a stronger
clamp from a hardware store. It's simply poor engineering. The chute
should turn freely, and there should be an additional mechanical control
to lock it into position -- so it doesn't turn randomly during operation.
This is NOT rocket science. And there's no reason to engineer tolerances
so close that things are just BEGGING to break down.
Winter 2003/2004
The starter destroyed itself. I'd probably only used the unit two dozen
times since I purchased it. I removed the gas tank in order to access
the starter. I was then that I noticed that it was improperly mounted onto
the engine block. It took 4 bolts. There was a little "fork" or prong
through which each of the bottom two bolts were supposed
to pass (refer to image below). Rather than passing through the forks, the
forks were literally sitting on top of the bolt heads. The snow thrower
was assembled wrong at the factory. I'm unsure whether this was a robot
out of alignment on the assembly line, or some underpaid fool. I say
underpaid, because you cannot attract good help with a salary
well-below middle-class standards.
In any case, it was Sears' fault -- but my unit was out of warranty. So
I spent $154.73 (including s/h) for the new starter out of my own
pocket. I installed it, properly, and things were good for the
remainder of that winter. I wrote a letter detailing the situation to
Sears' consumer affairs office, and they at least were kind enough to
refund me the cost in the mail. But it was like pulling teeth trying to
explain this to anyone over the telephone.
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The bottom half of the old starter. Top half and some wires were
partially melted. Must have become awfully hot -- just
below the gas tank also.
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Winter 2005/2006
The whole engine seized up. I started looking at the cool track-driven
Honda snow throwers, but didn't have a spare $2,500 in my pocket.
The Sears telephone service center was execrable. They offered to pick
up the unit (I don't have a truck) for like $99 and get it back a few
weeks later -- none of it covered under warranty. Thinking I'd be
without a snow thrower for a few weeks, and probably have to spend
$300-400 by the time it was over, I was somewhat at a loss.
I contacted a local small engine repair shop which came, picked it up,
and repaired it within a week. Whole affair was like $150. But there
was a caveat: the alternator inside the engine had somehow broken free
of its housing and become torn up inside.
The repair man said he could not install a new one because some mounts
had been wrecked. The upshot: I'll never run a light on this snow
thrower now.
Winter 2006/2007
Winters have been duds lately here in Minnesota, but we got a dumping of
over a foot in late February. As I was finishing things up,
I lost virtually all drive power to the wheels.
I took apart the snow thrower, laying it sideways, removing a wheel, and
the bottom access panel. I thought the traction drive belt was a little
loose so I removed it (you have to remove the auger belt as well).
Sears in Maplewood doesn't stock belts! They had referred me to their
service store in St. Paul, which has basically 9-5 M-F hours (useless
for working/career people) and Saturday (too long off -- this was Sunday).
But I found a local shop, Beisswengers, with a compatible belt for $17,
and installed it. This did not fix the problem. I spent well over an hour
outside. At least it wasn't very cold -- it was about 32 degrees
Fahrenheit. Tried adjusting the linkage and inspected the mechanicals
underneath. Chains looked good, well lubricated, gears and friction wheel
seemed fine, etc.
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The pulleys and belts...
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Fingers getting cold, I smelled somewhat of gasoline at this
point, and my clothing was all wet (melted snow). I decided to remove the
pulleys from the main engine drive. I took both belts off, put a 1"
wrench between the two pulleys to keep them from turning while, with the
other hand, used a rachet (metric socket) to remove the bolt holding the
unit in place. Even before I got it out, I noticed that they weren't
even real pulleys. Sears was too cheap for that. Oh no --
they wanted to save themselves a buck and form both pulleys out of
two cheap pieces of metal stamped together. A breakdown
just waiting to happen. The drive train pulley pieces had become
separated apart from one another, and so the belt wasn't able to dig with
any traction. They didn't pass any savings on to THIS consumer. Rather,
they passed on a piece of junk engineering. The engineer, or the
corporate manager who forced him to do so, should be pummeled
senseless: with a "pulley", flat tire or broken starter. Is is just a matter
of Sears saving a buck, or are they deliberately building poorly
engineered parts? Are they hoping to score big from more frequent repurchases,
the aftermarket industry, and service centers?
One could call Sears, deal with an extensive menu system, perhaps
some outsourced call center, or get online and order the part directly.
I checked their website -- it would have been like $18 for a new unit and
$9 for shipping/handling. And it would have been just as piss-poorly
engineered as the original.
Or perhaps I could locate a LOCAL handy welder and have him rejoin what
America's dropping reputation for automobiles and
manufacturing has put asunder. Indeed, that's what I did. I located
a welder who's only about 5 houses away from mine, and he made the
piece of junk better than new. $10 for his troubles.
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New welds -- better than new.
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Since I'm usually stuck in a god cursed gray windowless cubicle (what
crime did I commit to deserve that prison sentence?) or in
traffic 5 days out of 7, I woke up one morning at 5:30 am
(February 28, 2007) to rebuild my snow blower. This was just in time
for a major blizzard that came through Minnesota the next day, maybe the
worst in over a decade. The blower worked well -- though I wouldn't
be surprised if there's a new failure at any time.
Winter 2007/2008
Surprisingly, the snowblower got me through the worst of winter. And this was a
particularly cold one here in Minnesota, with many days below zero and a
reasonable amount of snow.
March teases us here in Minnesota, sometimes feeling almost like spring,
other times feeling more like January. This morning (March 18, 2008) I woke
to about 4 inches of thick icy/sloppy snow, and a foot at the end of my driveway
where the city plow passed by. I fired up the snowblower and -- even more leaving
my garage -- had no power to the drive train. I quickly pulled off the top housing
expecting to find a bad pulley again or loose belt. Nope. I tipped the unit over and
removed the bottom plate. It turned out that the sheer pin snapped. Oddly, I hadn't
even gotten the unit out of the garage -- and the last time I used it was under fairly low-load
circumstances. I had no choice but to put everything back into the garage, since I had to eat
breakfast, shower and head to work. I wasn't worried about driving through the foot of snow
(I have a Jeep Cherokee). My retired neighbor saw my predicament and came over -- on his own
accord -- and plowed my driveway for me. It is neighbors like him that we should all aspire to be.
You can be certain that if he's ever in a pinch I'll be there for him. While at work,
my wife picked up a new sheer pin/bolt for me, and I repaired the snowblower within
10-15 minutes when I got out of my jail cell (cubicle).
The moral of the story is... Well, I'll leave that up to my good reader
to fathom.