Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

My Ariens 7524 was working perfectly last year (last year was its first year). Couldn't start it today. It has gas, feul shut off valve was left open since last year, Key switch is in run position, and the start works fine. I kept it in the gaurage for the whole time. Any help would be highly appreciated. What is the likelihood f the carburetor being dirty? The snow blower was used for about 3 hours last year. If you think it is the carburetor how should I clean it. I am not sure if I got the engine manual.

chances are it's not a dirty carb. I would suspect fuel has gone bad. Drain the tank and drop the fuel bowl (if it has one) replace with fresh fuel. A quick and dirty thing to try would be to shoot a little ether into the carburetor and try strarting it. If it tries to start and then quits it may be the bad gas problem. Sometime the ether is all it takes to wake them up. If it does start, keep it running for a while. I'd add some dry gas into the tank also.

Jake..

If you left the fuel shut off open since last year it is very likely that you have a gummed up carb.Did you put stabilizer in the fuel last season? If not and you left the valve open the fuel evaporated in the carb and left you with a varnish residue.Drain the fuel tank and replace with fresh fuel that has been treated with a product called Sea Foam available at NAPA. Add about 6 ounces to the tank. If you can get it started the Sea foam will help clean the gunk in the carb.
If you can't get it started you may need to remove the carb and do a cleaning and rebuild.The bad news is this may not work either because there is a part in the carb that is sealed called the emolition tube.If it gets gunked up the carb is toast as it is sealed into the carb body and can't be serviced.
Invest in some fuel stabilizer and shut the valve after each use and run the engine at max speed until it runs out of fuel.NEVER LEAVE FUEL in the carb and always use stabilized fuel.I know there are those who may not agree but this procedure has worked for me for forty years.
Marc

Thank you for both replies. Both of you guessed right. Aged gas was the problem. I was lucky and using fresh gas took care of the problem. No need for taking the engine apart and doing card cleaning.

Thanks

Put a little carb cleaner in your gas, such as "Sea Foam"!!

                                                               Fred

I have a similar problem also with my Ariens 7524. This would be its second season. At the end of the first season I added Stabil, ran it for 10 minutes and then shut off the fuel valve. When I tried to start this season (electric start), it started for about 15-20 seconds, then stopped. It did this about 2 or 3 times, and now I can't get it to do even that. That is with full choke, fuel valve open, primed 3 or 4 times, throttle on low. I added some fresh fuel to the tank, but it didn't seem to help at all (I didn't drain the old fuel out though). What should I do next? If it is to drain the fuel tank, what is the best way to do that (I know that sounds like a dumb question)? Should I drain the fuel out of the carb? If so, how do I do that? Thanks for the expert advice!

tds1 wrote:

My guess is the fuel in the tank and the carb. should be dumped.  Possible ways to empty the tank would be to turn the shut-off to the off position. Remove the fuel line hose clamp nearest the carb. Pull the hose off and empty the contents of the fuel tank into a container and dispose of the old gas. Drop the fuel bowl from the carb. by unscrewing the high speed fuel adjustment screw located at the under side of the fuel bowl. Clean the bowl and carefully reattached it to the carb. body. Re-attach the fuel line to the carb. tighten the hose clamp. Fill with gas, open the fuel shut-off and try starting. It should fire right up. This is also a good time to clean and adjust the spark plug to .030" gap.

Jake..

Thanks Jake for the helpful advice. I was planning on following your advice over the weekend when I had more time - but I just figured out the problem. The Ariens manual shows the fuel shut off valve as horizontal when open, vertical when closed. The engine manual shows the exact opposite (which I only looked at tonight). So, based on the Ariens manual I put the fuel switch to horizontal. That is why it started for 20 seconds, then stopped and never started again. Obviously, I had it backwards (just took me a few days to figure out), but isn't it strange the Ariens manual and the engine manual shows the exact opposite settings for the fuel switch. Oh well - problem solved. Thanks all!