I'm happy that stumbled upon ths thread. My stepson gave me his old Ariens ST824 (model 924050 w/ Tecumseh 8HP). It stopped running so he went out and bought a new snowblower. Being the tinkerer that I am, I did some troubleshooting and determined that it was the carb that was faulty. So I went to my local Ariens dealer and purchased a rebuild kit for the carb. After I rebuilt it, I installed it back on the motor. As soon as I opened the gas valve, gas started pouring out of the primer outlet. I was sure that I did everything right so I took it apart again but didn't see anything wrong. I Googled my problem - low and behold, I found this thread. I'm happy to say that it turned out to be that I put the grooved side of the needle seal towards the bowl. I flipped it around and seated it using the shaft of a drill bit, put it all back together, and voila! No more gas leaking and it started right up! Thanks guys, I appreciate the tip.
Now I need to tweak the adjustments on the carb. It runs fine at near full throttle with the choke 3/4 on (which I'm sure is not right) and stalls out at mid to low rpms. What's your advice fine tuning the carb? I did one and a half turns from closed on the screw at the bottom of the bowl. Should I tweak this one out some more - maybe 2 turns?
Your advice would be greatly appreciated.
