# Ariens 5HP dies under load



## End Grain (Nov 17, 2007)

Does the unit have a muffler at the exhaust? If so, run it for a few minutes with the muffler removed. You may have a backpressure problem at low speed caused by a partially clogged or bad muffler. Also, is there an air filter on-board the blower? Check to see if it's dirty, damaged or clogged. Black fume and soot are indications of too rich a mixture, i.e. not enough air to match the amount of fuel coming in. While it may be something more serious within the engine itself, it pays to start out with the simplest things that are not time-sonsuming, expensive or invasive. Sort of like seeing if the TV set is plugged in or if the circuit blew before calling the repair technician. :wink:


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## pcampbell (Feb 7, 2008)

I took off the muffler, it's fine. I tried to take the carb off and the studs are rotating with the nuts, but not coming out?!


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## DefEddie (Mar 16, 2008)

Sounds like you probably have some gunk in the carb or bad fuel.
If you can get the carb off simply spray the heck out of it with carb or brake cleaner,you should be able to separate the bowl from the body of the carb.
Make sure there isn't any gunk in the little holes and shake the float to make sure it doesn't have any fuel in it.
Sometime's over time the float will absorb fuel or come in through a crack which won't allow it to float so it will be constantly flooding the bowl.
Also look in the needle seat for the bowl and make sure no gunk has got in there.

I'm not great with small engines,hope that helps.


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## pcampbell (Feb 7, 2008)

Thanks.

Here's what I think. I bought it used and the shop told me they were going to rebuild the carb first. At first I thought it was maybe my fault for leaving fuel in the carb for a month or two but I am not sure that was going to cause all the problems. I went to try to take the carb off myself and the studs in the block are twisting when I turn the nut, yet still not coming out, so I am guessing they never cleaned it and there's all kinds of gunk in there.  

Also the throttle cable had gotten "out" of its housing so I believe it was not going to full RPM. I replaced the fuel hose which was leaking. Then I put tons of carb cleaner into the intake and adjusted the carb, fixed the throttle cable and I'll just wait until next year. I really need to get on top of emptying and running dry my small gas motors. I am a diesel guy and this is my first house so I never had these things before. [dummy]

So it snowed like 3 times this year and all 3 times I had a useless snowblower. What a waste.


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## pcampbell (Feb 7, 2008)

Can anyone tell me how to adjust the carb? It is a Tecumseh with 3 different screws. 1 underneath the bowl. One right above the bowl and one a little higher. I really don't remember what any of these do. I think bottom is high speed, one is low speed and other mixture??


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## Semiretired48 (Oct 10, 2008)

Although I don't know why a snowblower would have one, Ive seen stranger things, so here goes. When you inspected the muffler, did it have a spark arrestor screen in it at the exhaust outlet? If it does and the screen becomes blocked with carbon the engine will act up as you describe and eventually won't run at all. Just a thought.


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## pcampbell (Feb 7, 2008)

I took the bowl off, and cleaned it off. 

I also took off the bolt that holds the bowl on, which the high speed screw screws into. I cleaned the gunk off the high speed screw, as well as there is a tiny pin sized hole in the bolt that holds on the bowl, that was gunked up. Unfortunately I really do not have any way to test it on a load, but it starts on 2 pulls,idles and revs up great now. :thumbup:


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