It could be one of a few things
A) if you flip the blower on it's nose, and take off the bottom pan, check to see if the rubber drive disc is slipping when it hits the friction disc, you can do this by engaging the drive handle and if its working properly u shouldn't be able to move the tires, if it is slipping, clean off the friction and drive discs of any oil,grease or water.
B) Rubber drive disc under blower is wore out or has chunks missing, you'll have to replace it.
C) the drive belt is wore out/stretched, check by taking off the belt cover right in front of the engine, drive belt is the one closest to the engine, check for wear/ cracks or rips (yours may not but some blowers have a tension pulley to keep the drive belt tight if it does check to see if it's doing just that)
D) The rod or cable which ever connects the drive engaging handle to the drive could be loose and require tightening, its usually a threaded piece at the bottom of the rod or cable
As for the gas leak, it's common for that to happen, it just means you've over primed and the fuel bowl is full so the gas has no where to go but out of the larger open port on the carburetor
This message was modified Dec 20, 2008 by DCPowered