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

Have an HSK70 7 hp engine that's been used about four years which is  mounted on an everlasting and loved old Ariens chassis from 1971.

Ran great until first use this season.  I'll preface this by stating that last spring I shut off the fuel line and drained the carb.  It's the first year I've done so little for seasonal storage.  There was about 1/4 tank of fuel.  The snow blower has seen light use with only one curb cut and 20' of driveway.  My estimation is maybe 16 hours of use.

This year I filled the tank, it started right up and made it about 100' from the shed to the driveway.  There's where the problem began.

It stalled under load.  Ran fine at idle but as soon as I engaged the drive belt and demanded something from it; stall.  Setting the choke to 1/4 (the first notch) seemed to help, but the problem persisted.  I tried tweaking the needle adjustment on the carb.  It started at 1 5/8 turn from a gentle bottom, and seemed to run best at that position.  I tried tweaking it both with the drive belt engaged and disengaged.

It idles fine but just plain stalls under a load. 

What should I do?

i have been running no more than 10% blend for a few years now in my 1986 tecumseh ariens 824 8hp, so far no ill affects. the spacer has a larger orafice than the brass jet nut so if anything is going to clog it's the holes in the nut. i found out the hard way about clogged jets on a new 40hp evinrude two stroke outboard. the bottom carb high speed jet had a piece of gasket clogging it that worked loose when it was assebled when new. i ran it on one cylinder back to the landing probably five minutes max. it's a 1987 motor bought new and in 2001 i had to have the cylinder head rebuilt with the bottom cylinder bored and a new piston and rings. i t took me a while of thinking why the cyclinder went bad and i figured a did some damage when the jet was plugged. if you have no gas you have no lubrication for the cylinder either. the boat gets used in canada once a year and thats it and i'm still going every year and have had no problems since. nock on wood!

Original poster here.  It's still running like new, just flawless in today's storm and a pleasure to use.  Thanks again for leading me in the right direction.

Was hoping to find an answer about adding a fuel filter to minimize chances of another clogged jet.  I assume there is an engineering reason why it didn't come with one back in the 70's, but is it OK to add a small one just before the carb?

No reason I can think of to not install a fuel filter.  I'd put it between the shut off valve (if it has one) and the carb.  I wouldn't go too small.  I like to use the $3.99 Canadian Tire clear plastic filters.  They're big enough to provide many years of service yet small enough to install in limited spaces.  Being clear plastic, it's easy to see if it has contamination in it.   

grump

yeah defintly add the the fuel filter it will save u a lot of headachs in the future. tecumsech uses a "so called" fuel filter in the gas tank but alot of times people break them open when they clog up from years of service.

OK, thanks.  Will do. 

Suppose there's no reason to use a small one as I envisioned because a larger one will have less resistance to the gravity fed carb.