Any bright ideas why my snowblower won't start?

[TrogL]

I fired it up briefly last summer and it worked fine. Tried it this winter and despite gas-line antifreeze, priming, filling the gas tank (no, I don't think it was empty) and it having an electric starter, it simply won't start. I've used it maybe four times in total since I bought it.

It turns out that we have "winter gas" and "summer gas" here and I suspect that I bought the gasoline in the summer. Would that be enough to make a difference?

[ret5hd]

1. Because really...deep deep down...you don't want it to.

And i don't blame you.

Try it again in June.

[TrogL]

4. We might still have some snow then

[ret5hd]

5. OK...August then.

[TrogL]

10. I had a job interview here August 15th. It snowed.

I immediately wondered am I getting myself into.

[ret5hd]

12. Well, I'll tell you what...

You send me your snowblower and i'll send you my lawnmower, and i bet they both operate perfectly year tound.

[LynneSin]

2. Oh that's what happened to my snowblower gremlins

[PoliticAverse]

3. Could be (summer gas is less volatile than winter gas).

If you can remove, check and clean the spark plug.

In the future you may want to use something like Stabil in the gas if you are going to not use the blower for
several months.

[Denninmi]

8. Or even replace the spark plug, not just clean it.

That has worked for me in the past.

If it still won't start, any possibity you could bring it somewhere warm overnight to warm up, that may help.

[TrogL]

9. that's what I did last time - lugged it down into the basement

Last time, however, I had help and room in the basement.

[Denninmi]

14. Did it work?

?

[TrogL]

19. Yes. I think I cleaned the spark plug as well. It was a mess

[UncleYoder]

6. Assuming

you drained the tank and bought fresh gas. If not do that first, and pick up a can of Seafoam to mix with the new gas. Check your spark to the plug. If strong, pull the air filter and a little Seafoam in the carb to get her started. She will smoke for a couple of minutes, sputtering all the while, then smooth out. It's not the gas, but the ethanol that is in the gas that's your problem.

[pscot]

7. Bad gas

Those little engines don't like stale gas. Shoveling is better for you anyhow.

[PoliticAverse]

11. A few people die each year shovelling...

http://obit-mag.com/articles/shoveling-deaths-by-the-numbers.

[loli phabay]

13. from experience i would say the gas sat in it to long and gunked your carb

Happened to me a couple of times and is common.

[sharp_stick]

15. Are you getting any spark at all?

A couple of ideas, hopefully but not guaranteed to be helpful.

Is it trying to start and giving you a bunch of coughing and sputtering before dying (1) or is it just turning over and over with no attempt to start (2).

(1) It might just be flooded, if that's the case let it dry out for awhile and try again. You might want to dump any fuel in the system and fill it with new gas. Summer and winter isn't that big a difference but old gas can cause some varnish and crap to gum up the system, might be even more of an issue if you left the blower in a hot shed all summer.

I'm not a big fan of gas line antifreeze unless it's really needed with a contaminated system. Unless it's really cheap stuff (methanol which will rust out your lines) it's basically just isopropyl alcohol and it helps get rid of water in the system. If your gas contains 10% ethanol it will probably do the trick well enough on it's own. I don't think it would hurt much but small engines aren't big fans of alcohol and the extra in the antifreeze may be hurting your starting ability instead of helping it out.

Pull the plug and check it out, if the electrode is black or sticky replace it, it's cheap. Put it back in, not too tight, and make sure the cable is connected well.

If you smell a lot of gas when you pull the plug leave it out while you go get a new one it should dry out nicely by the time you get back from Home Depot.

(2) It might be a bad plug or plug cable, and you can check that by pulling and replacing the plug and making sure the cable is well connected.

I had a plugged fuel line once that stopped any gas getting to a generator but if you've only started it a couple of times that's not likely to be a problem

Failing that, call my neighbor. He's a whiz with small engines and has saved me from buying a new lawnmower for the last two years.

Actually you can probably find a good small engine repair guy nearby that will look at it and help you out fairly cheaply.

Good luck.

[MiddleFingerMom]

16. Have you tried turning it off and turning it on again?

.
.
.
I think it's called rebooting.
.
.
.

[Chan790]

29. I once had a tech-support job...

where the literally-first solution in the binder to any problem including "My tower is on fire" was "Have you tried rebooting?"

On my last day in that job, I unplugged my supervisor's computer to see how long it took him to troubleshoot the problem. I gave up and went to IHOP after 1 hr. 15 mins.

[MiddleFingerMom]

33. THAT is funnah!!!!! And musta been very very gratifying.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

17. Did you try starter fluid yet? I left gas in mine all year and that did the trick.

[dogknob]

18. Maybe it needs a snowfluffer

[MiddleFingerMom]

28. Snowjob.

[Paulie]

20. My snow thrower has a plastic key

If not inserted it will never start.

[Brother Buzz]

21. It ain't got no gas in it

[jmowreader]

22. I recommend rejoicing in the snow

If the Repukes don't quit blocking global warming bills, snow will soon be a thing of the past.

Your wife ain't gonna go for that, so search the engine for its data plate. Take engine make and model to a small engine shop and get a carb rebuild kit and the large economy size carb cleaner. Tear the carb down,, clean it, rebuild with the new parts, start up and be happy.

[RedCloud]

23. They can't start until baseball season.

Something to do with the offseason.

[MrScorpio]

24. It's lazy nt

[MiddleFingerMom]

30. And feels entitled.

[MrScorpio]

32. Just take away its phone privileges nt

[Glassunion]

25. I usually have to pay first.

[Moondog]

26. Gas that is stored for too long begins to gunk up.

There is a commercial product called Sta-Bil that counteracts that. If you live in a high humidity area, there is a marine version that they put out.

If you left gas in it since last season, even if you used anti-freeze, the old gas may have gunked up something in the line between the gas tank and the cylinder where it ignites. I do not have the skills to fix something like that.

[Lokey]

27. I second the plastic key

If it isn't lined up right it won't work either. But our 20 something year old one didn't start this year. We decided to get a small electric one --its about the same size as this gas one but much lighter.
Works about the same cept for the cord and now we don't have to worry about gas and oil etc. We are all getting older so for us the small electric was the best way to go.
Good Luck to you. Hope the darn thing starts.

[kentauros]

31. No snow?

Or just no blow?

[digonswine]

34. Generally-test one thing at a time.

It is usually no spark or no gas--usually no gas.

To test spark is easy. Remove the plug with wire still attached and place the bottom, or spark end, against something metal and not near flammables.
Darken room.
Turn over the engine. If you see lightning between the spark plug and metal, or in the spark plug gap, the problem is fuel, probably.
That's where I would start. Eliminate possibilities.

Also--does this thing have a choke? I don't know about new stuff, but old ones did. This makes a big difference.

[TrogL]

36. Yeah, I did the choke thing

Going to try new gas and clean the plugs tomorrow.

[Hotler]

35. First, make sure the gas is fresh, don't just add gas to the tank....

empty out all the old and put in new. Second, check for spark. Third, check that the air filter is no real dirty. If all of that is done try starting with the choke fully on(Closed). if nothing happens open the choke all the way and hold the throttle open all the away and try starting it. If it still will not start take out the air cleaner and try again. If you have a fuel filter check it. Pump gas goes bad in about 30-days, it will work in todays cars because of the computers, but just doesn't work well in snow-blowers, lawn mowers etc. let us know what happens and check back in here.

[kentauros]

37. Next time, get a Plutonium Nyborg blower

[TrogL]

38. Finally got it to start

Was going to work on it again when I discovered the shed door was frozen shut. Dumped 1/2 a bag of ice melt in front of it so it would work its way under the door. A day later I was able to wrench the door open, but cracked it in the process.

All the bolts were rusted. Some of them were really deep set. Went to three different stores before I found a set of deep small bore sockets such as 1/4". Got the rest of the bolts off, then had to wrestled the plastic cover past the spout. The cover eventually cracked in two places but I got it turned around enough to get at the spark plug. Found out I didn't have a socket to fit it, was already to simply give up and go buy another snowblower (saw a nice one on sale) when I decided to drive back to a pawn shop I knew had tools. Got a proper sized spark plug socket and went back to the house. Got the spark plug out with some effort and had a look at it.

It looked really corroded so I went at it with a wire brush. Checked the gas - it didn't look too bad so I thought I might as well give it a whirl. Started instantly, ran really, really rough so i let it idle for about 10 minutes until it smoothed out. Then I blew a bunch of snow, letting it sit each time it started running rough again.

I'm going to go out and buy all new bolts to replace those that are rusted and have fallen out and put the fluids in as recommended above.

Comparing it to the ones I was looking at and thinking about buying, the one I have is a really crappy, stupid design. I'm never buying a Briggs and Stratton branded appliance again. They make good motors but they don't know shit about workable design. I should never have had to go through that much agony to change a spark plug.

[struggle4progress]

39. It's still not fully awake after hibernating. Give it plenty of strong coffee

[krispos42]

40. It's because you need it too.

Shovel by hand. When all snow is cleared, I bet it will start right up!








(glad to see you got it going)

[PuffedMica]

41. Could it be because you took three bennys