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

Ariens snow thrower has no spark what could be wrong?

I pulled plug it is dirty but when pulling rope with plug hooked to wire no spark at all does this mean plug is bad or do i have other problems? I also pulled the cover that covers carburator seems there are only two wires that kill it the one for the plastic key and the one for the throttle, they both seem to be in great shape.

There are normally two kill switches:

1. The one that the "ignition" key disconnects;
2. The one that is engaged when the throttle is in the bottom (slow, turtle, off) position.

In both cases they short the ignition to ground by connecting to the engine body.

You can get a spark tester that will indicate whether or not there is a charge going through the wire to the spark plug. If you are using the "I see a spark in the plug" technique then you need to make sure the base of the plug has good electrical contact with the engine body and it is dark enough for you to see the spark. I normally put a new plug in every year or two but cleaning and gapping are also a good idea.

The other thing to check is whether you are getting gas. If you try to start it for a while and then pull the plug is it wet? It should be. Sometimes injecting a little bit of gas through the spark hole, replacing the spark plug will help. If the motor starts and then dies then its a fuel problem and not electrical. I once got a blower going by doing the fuel injection trick twice. On the second time things started working. I had also put Seafoam, a carburettor cleaner, in the fuel tank. That blower still starts but I plan to do some maintenance once the season is over.