# Snowblower starts then dies



## saxsquad29 (Mar 29, 2015)

Just tried starting snowblower for first time this season. Drained the oil and gas and put fresh in along with stabilizer. Also put in a new sparkplug. After all of that it started but then white smoke came from exhaust and muffler then died after about a minute
Smoke has a very strong odor almost like burnt plastic???
Wouldn't even come close to starting after that. Next day it started right up again, but started smoking then died. Checked for flooded engine, dried spark plug and hole and tried starting, nothing. Any help please.

I Have a craftsman snowblower only about 2 years old and maybe have used it 5x


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## rjniles (Feb 5, 2007)

Move south. LOL


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## joecaption (Nov 30, 2011)

Regular Sta-Bil does nothing to counter act the effects of ethanol gas.
The less you use it the more effect it has on it.
Time to rebuild the carb. and find some place that sells nonethnol gas.


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## saxsquad29 (Mar 29, 2015)

joecaption said:


> Regular Sta-Bil does nothing to counter act the effects of ethanol gas.
> The less you use it the more effect it has on it.
> Time to rebuild the carb. and find some place that sells nonethnol gas.


Snowblower is only 2 years old and I already need to rebuild carb? Would a gummed up carb cause the white smoke and burning smell?


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## Fix'n it (Mar 12, 2012)

sounds to me you are not, or it is not automatically, turning the choke off.


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## ryansdiydad (Aug 16, 2015)

Remove the float bowl and see if it's full of gunk then clean and replace. Careful with the gasket you might need to replace that too..


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## griz (Sep 22, 2015)

Get some Berriman's B12 carb cleaner spray.

Douche that carb, you may have to pull it pff to clean it thoroughly.

Put some in the gas tank also....


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## saxsquad29 (Mar 29, 2015)

Any easy way to clean the carb without removing it?


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## ZTMAN (Feb 19, 2015)

Pour a little Seafoam in the carb. That usually does the trick. It will smoke for awhile, but it should clean it


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## jmon (Nov 5, 2012)

saxsquad29 said:


> Just tried starting snowblower for first time this season. Drained the oil and gas and put fresh in along with stabilizer. Also put in a new sparkplug. After all of that it started but then white smoke came from exhaust and muffler then died after about a minute
> Smoke has a very strong odor almost like burnt plastic???
> Wouldn't even come close to starting after that. Next day it started right up again, but started smoking then died. Checked for flooded engine, dried spark plug and hole and tried starting, nothing. Any help please.
> 
> I Have a craftsman snowblower only about 2 years old and maybe have used it 5x


I had a similar situation; 2 yr old snowblower, same thing, never used much, wrong kind of gas, never drained gas during off season, etc. 

I took it to a local small engine repair shop, he took carb off, cleaned it, had it going in less then 15 minutes. Charged me 45 dollars, but showed me how to diy myself next time. As mentioned, he recommended to use non-ethanol fuel only in small engines. 

He also told me if you're not going to drain the gas out, as it recommends in owners manual for off season or prolong storage, (which I don't) then keep a full tank of gas in it and start it once a month or so in the off season. Its been over 6 years now, fires right up every winter. Haven't had to clean carb since he done it.

I'm sure if you google it, you'll find a utube video on how to remove and clean carb for your craftsman. Check your owners manual as well.

Hope you get it figured out and fired up soon saxs. If we get a winter like the last two, we're going to need it. So far it's been mild in upstate NY. i know will pay sooner or later though.

Let us know what the problem was. Thanks.


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## saxsquad29 (Mar 29, 2015)

Cleaned out the carb today and it looked pretty good. Cleaned the bowl and main jet and blew air through all holes. Starts right up every time but only runs like half choke but at no choke runs super rough making a loud knocking noise but never actually stalls


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## ryansdiydad (Aug 16, 2015)

You may want to drain and replace the fuel.. Depending on how much of the old fuel is left..


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## ZTMAN (Feb 19, 2015)

Any reason you didnt try seafoam?


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## saxsquad29 (Mar 29, 2015)

ZTMAN said:


> Any reason you didnt try seafoam?


Access to the carb is limited in these craftsman snowblowers. I had to take off the engine and muffler shrouds just to reach it. I figured if I had gone that far I might as well take the whole carb off and clean it good.

How would I get the seafoam into the carb without disassembly?

Is.there a way to test the carb without filling the whole tank with gas?


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## saxsquad29 (Mar 29, 2015)

ryansdiydad said:


> You may want to drain the and replace the fuel.. Depending on how much of the old fuel is left..


Before I even cleaned carb I drained all the old oil and put fresh in. This didn't solve the problem.


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## oh'mike (Sep 18, 2009)

Did you remove the float and clean the needle valve?
Just blasting the bowl clean is not enough--the needle valve needs cleaning.


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## saxsquad29 (Mar 29, 2015)

oh'mike said:


> Did you remove the float and clean the needle valve?
> Just blasting the bowl clean is not enough--the needle valve needs cleaning.


I did clean the float and needle valve. Are there holes in the needle valve that I should clean?


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## oh'mike (Sep 18, 2009)

The needle goes into a hole----so Yes, that needs cleaning,too.

I find the thin wire inside of a bread bag twister tie is just the right size to clean the hole----look in the kitchen---


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## SeniorSitizen (Sep 10, 2012)

A pipe cleaner saturated with B-12 mentioned by griz works well for cleaning small orifices. Give the B-12 an little time to dissolve the varnish or whatever and repeat, twice if you thing good things sometimes take a little longer.


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## ZTMAN (Feb 19, 2015)

saxsquad29 said:


> Access to the carb is limited in these craftsman snowblowers. I had to take off the engine and muffler shrouds just to reach it. I figured if I had gone that far I might as well take the whole carb off and clean it good.
> 
> How would I get the seafoam into the carb without disassembly?
> 
> Is.there a way to test the carb without filling the whole tank with gas?


Add it to your gas tank. I use the seafoam because it cures a lot of evils, and I dont have the technical skills to rip apart a carb and put it back together. It generally works. My leaf blower and string trimmer had the same symptoms from a bad batch of mix. Sea Foam did the trick


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## saxsquad29 (Mar 29, 2015)

I cleaned out the carb and got everything back together and it runs great on no choke, but move it back down to full choke and it sputters. Also, it doesn't seem like it's at full power when off choke. How can I adjust that so that its at full power again?

When I put the throttle linkages back on (PIMA) I might have stretched the springs a bit so there not as tight, could that have caused my loss of power?


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## saxsquad29 (Mar 29, 2015)

Now after 5 minutes of running fine on no choke its starts cycling again. I can see the throttle control on the carburetor going back and forth. This time not as bad as before


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## saxsquad29 (Mar 29, 2015)

Still revving high/low but when apply a load(auger and drive) it runs normal. Any ideas?

I did tighten the carburetor mounting nuts more tightly to see if that would work.


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## saxsquad29 (Mar 29, 2015)

Update: sometime it will run fine at idle but now when I apply load it starts revving and running rough. Runs better if I reduce throttle or apply slight choke. Will shut down at full choke. Any help? Air leak? Carburetor still dirty?


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## saxsquad29 (Mar 29, 2015)

Added seafoam to the gas tank and it purrs like a kitten. I did have 50/50 mixture so hopefully it cleans it out good


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## jmon (Nov 5, 2012)

yep. Sounds like it was just a dirty gummed up carb. Thanks to ztman we found a good solution. Never heard of seafoam. I will definitely try it next time as well. Thanks ztman.


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## ZTMAN (Feb 19, 2015)

:


jmon said:


> yep. Sounds like it was just a dirty gummed up carb. Thanks to ztman we found a good solution. Never heard of seafoam. I will definitely try it next time as well. Thanks ztman.



:thumbsup:


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## saxsquad29 (Mar 29, 2015)

ZTMAN said:


> :
> 
> 
> :thumbsup:


Yes, thank you ztman for letting us know about seafoam- amazing stuff
Thanks everyone for all the help
I will definitely be using this in my lawnmower as well to clean it up


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