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

Hello, i have a Older Snowblower and i had it out today.. 1st time this Winter after a storm and it was running good but then ran out of gas... so i went to put new gas in and now it wont stay running.

any Help would be great, i really need the snowblower going as im 60 years old with a Metal Leg doing a long ass Drive way.

Thanks for looking, And hoping for some help

It could be water in the gas, just crapped out because you may have left gas in last year or a number of other things.

 

Does it start up easily?

 

You could try this:  After it has sat idle for a while try starting it with a couple of primes, choke on and pull.  Give it 5 pulls.  If it does not start then take out the plug and see if it’s wet.  If wet then it could be flooding from a bad float i.e has a hole and now sinking in the bow.  It could be water in the gas and not firing because of the water.

 

If the plug is dry it’s not getting gas and possibly the carb is plugged up with dirt or varnish.  You could try putting in some gas through the carb throat or sparkplug to see if it fires up.  It should within 3-5 pulls.  If it starts and runs for a few seconds then you have a gas block someplace.

If the plug is wet (fouled with gas) you might try drying it off with a rag, then placing it in a sparkplug socket and holding a propane torch on it for 15-30 seconds to thoroughly dry it and warm it up a little.  Thread it back in while it is still hot (this is why you hold it in a sparkplug socket while heating it.)  Give it a yank or two and see what happens with no choke and a little throttle.  If nothing, then give it some choke and try again.  Starting fluid (ether) might also be your friend, but keep it away from the torch :)

good luck.

I'm going with water in the fuel. Drain tank and carb, fill with fresh fuel.

I tend to agree with Borat, but I'm going to take it a little further.  Sometimes with old machines, over a period of time, you get a bunch of water/sediment build up in the bottom of the gas tank.  Normally it just sits there, but if the tank is run completely dry of fuel, all this water and gunk gets sucked into the fuel line and can either clog the fuel filter or the carb.

First thing I would try is to change the fuel filter if it has one (it might be in the gas tank itself).  If that doesn't work, I would clean the carb.  You said the blower was working ok before it ran out of fuel so most likely it's either the filter or the carb.

Before you dig into it, get some new fuel line because the old line has probably hardened and you might ruin it taking it off.