If your snowblower seems to be clogging up all the time, rather than curse the gods you may want to check to see if the shear pin snapped off.

This is a part that is designed to break and prevent the device from really being used in case something large that might damage the parts gets sucked up, like a stick or a rock. The shear pin is located on the bar of the auger and your snowblower probably came with a few replacement pins.

A reporter over at Shop Smart, a publishing sibling to Consumerist, learned about shear pins the hard way, in the middle of the big Christmas blizzard. After figuring out the problem and replacing the pin, her previously frustration-inducing snowblower worked smoothly:

That storm came and I awoke to another 18 inches of snow. I bundled up and headed out to start up the snow blower. An hour later I was back inside warming up with a clear driveway and paths. The machine worked like a dream, or maybe just how it is supposed to.

Lessons learned in a snowstorm [Shop Smart]

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