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

I'm looking for help diagnosing and correcting a problem I'm having with a Toro Power Clear snowblower.  The unit has a Briggs and Straton 141CC two stroke engine that stalls out after a few minutes of run time.   The problem started a few days ago and might be related to something I did a few days earlier.

The pull cord broke so I opened the unit and removed the recoil starter mechanism to fish out the remaining cord.  There was enough cord left to start the motor with a short pull so I simply retied the it to the pull handle and reassembled the unit.  Either I forgot to reconnect the tube running from the carburetor to the primer bulb, or it came loose while I was putting the "skins" back on.  In any event the unit ran fine for several hours, maybe up to 4 hours afterwards, but it did on occasionally sound like it was about to run out gas.  I didn't think much of that because when the unit is not under load the engine revs up and down a bit.

I put the unit away for a few hours then topped off the gas tank and started blowing snow again.  After about 5 minutes the engine died and would not restart.   Since my gas can was almost empty when I topped of the tank I suspected water might have gotten into the fuel line and frozen, so I put the unit in the cellar for a few hours to warm it up.   A couple of hours later I pulled the cord and the unit started right up.  A few minutes later it died so I returned it to the cellar, disconnected the fuel line and drained the carburetor bowel. That's when I noticed that the primer tube was not connected.  I reconnected the fuel and primer lines and the motor started after a few pulls.  It died a minute or so later.

I then drained all the fuel out of the tank and carburetor and put it fresh gas.  That didn't fix the problem the motor still stalled after a few minutes.

I've dropped the carburetor bowl and it looks like the float is moving freely and am stumped as to how to proceed.  Like I said, after it stalls I can get it restart it if I drain the bowl but it only runs for a minute.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks,
bob