I've got a couple of the small Toro 21" single stage snowblowers, and they work great for most of the places I do, and recently they both have problems with the choke handle, in that the detent's for holding the choke in various positions have worn off, and it appears that I would need to replace the carb on both of them to get them back (for awhile, at least, until they wear out again) and carbs are about $75 each.
Right now, while using them, the choke now automatically comes on, as the choke handle has a fair amount of mass, and the snowblower gets tilted back a bit to reposition it, so the choke naturally wants to fall (when the machine is tilted) and the choke comes on. The plugs get fouled, also uses a bit more oil because of it being on, uses more gas and the engine runs very poorly. Since this happens all the time (as in, 5-10 seconds after pushing it in, it'll be back out again), it's very annoying.
I was going to use some spring plungers (purchased, I'm not good at making very small bits like they have), but evidently no retailer in the Edmonton area has them, to make a longer lasting detent setup on the choke handle itself. In particular, Acklands Grainger is very annoying, their web site said when I ordered I can pick them up tomorrow, I phoned them about trying to pick them up today, and was informed that not only do they not have them in edmonton, none of their warehouses in Canada have them, and the manufacturer they get them from also doesn't have any, and has no date for when they might have some
In the meantime, I decided to make a simple latch for the choke lever to hold it in, that I can work with gloved hands.
First, the detailed design document (can't do work without it):
And the part, as made, installed:
I used a much thicker than necessary piece of metal for the end of the latch, primarily to give it some extra mass to try to stop it from bouncing up enough for the choke lever to be able to shift back. I'll see how it works tomorrow, and may look through a bag of springs I have to see there is a small spring I could put on one side of the latch to hold it down more securely. And I used a spring pin for the hinge, with the center piece drilled a little larger to be able to rotate freely on it.
Note, there was real machining as part of this project, as I used my lathe to drill the hole in a rod to make that hinge, as well as to part it off the remainder of the rod.