Ok,
Thanks Wilbur, your explaination is appreciated.

I will pay closer attention to my fuels.

Now I will focus on cleaning this carburater.

It is a big difference in performacne in only a short storage season. While
our winter wasn't that bad or long and I always use the high test I am
shocked that the gas gummed up that quickly.

I will begin tackling this carb and cleaning it.

thanks again




"Wilbur Hubbard" wrote in message
anews.com...
"Tom" wrote in message
...
Hi
Thank you for the reply. I see there was a bleeder screw at the bottom of
the bowl of the carb, I opened that up and was able to push (via
squeezing) the bulb so I see the fuel coming out. You still think it
requires the carb to be removed and cleaned out? I did it to my
rototiller and was successful, I can do it , but took a long time. Looks
compacted in there. Do you think the fuel with today's alcohol caused
anything? I found a station that sells zero alcohol in their fuel but
that wasn't easy, it seems everyone today has the alcohol in their fuel.
I was worried it was that causing some problem maybe a seal or neoprene
seal was eaten.
Thanks for the advice, looks like this weekend is booked cleaning the
carb. Any more advice is appreciated.


Most likely it will need a manual cleaning unless it was just some water
in the float bowl. What you did should have flushed out any settled water.

It's not necessarily the alcohol that's the problem but rather the fuel
seems to 'go stale' rather fast these days. It used to be gasoline would
stay usable for years. But now, it goes bad - i.e. turns to a sludge like
material that clogs small orifices. They make a product called Sta-bil
(SP?) that you can add to fuel before storing a motor for months that
keeps it viable. But raw fuel just seems to have a way too short shelf
life anymore. I always run my motor until the float bowl is dry if I know
I won't be using it for even a week or two. This means removing the fuel
hose and running it while pressing the built in Shrader valve mechanism
until the fuel pump pumps air and the float bowl is rendered empty by the
venturi action of the carburetor. A dry float bowl will keep the jets
clean.

Wilbur Hubbard