Rich, I love it when their loss is my gain. Last Friday I stopped at a garage sale on my way back from Menards. They had a nice looking Troy Bilt snowblower setting there but I wasn't in the market for one so I didn't even look. The lady made it her mission to point it out to me and tell me how they wanted it out of their garage. The motor runs great, the auger turns like it should, it just doesn't "go". Make me an offer she says. I started it on the first pull and she was right about everything. It even has plug in electric start. She says give me 5.00 and it's yours. I told her it was probably the drive belt but they wanted rid of it.
I ordered the new belt for 8.99 shipped to the house and it's a 15 minute job to change it. They sell the exact same blower at Home Depot for 699.00. Some days I love our throw away mentality, as long as I have room in the barn.
By the way, it's going up for sale in November, probably ask 300.00.