Oh how i love working on a snowblower outside during a snowstorm....

I purchased an older used 28" 8.5hp craftsman snowblower back in early december. Slowly i have been learning its quirks and fixing various problems. The most recent i can't seem to figure out....

Starts up great and runs wonderful (after i cleaned and adjusted the carb) but the auger won't engage. So i took the little plastic cover off of the belt housing and the belt that engages the auger obviously needs tightening as when the lever is pulled and the little wheel moves in to tighten the belt there is still slack and it doesn't drive the auger. I tried tightening it at the spring at the bottom of the cable but that didn't tighten it up enough. Is anyone familiar with the tightening system under the belt housing? I couldn't seem to make heads or tails out of it....it unfortunately didn't come with a manual. It needs tightened up quite a bit as there is still loads of slack in the belt when the lever is pressed down....no idea how it was working before. The model number is 536.886650.

Anyone have experience with this model or know of a link to a manual? Anyone know the numbers for the belts? (i'm sure they will need replacing sometime) If i need to split the thing open to tighten i may just replace the belts.

thanks

RC