Hey guys (and gals? any left ?)

I have this snowblower....same old story - got it free a few years ago, got it running and used it every once in a while: its a 2-stroke, single stage, "Toro S-140" thing. It is powered by a small, tecumseh 2 stroke engine with a chain driving the paddles.

Every year, I take the carb. apart and clean the junk out. Last year I threw a carb rebuild kit at it (new diaphragm and a few gaskets). I thought that I ran it out of fuel last spring, but when I had the carb. apart today, it was full of powdered fuel residue (?).

Every year - it gives me the same problem - starts and runs on the primer, but refuses to run normally. Sometimes I can get it up to temperature and it'll stay running long enough to shovel snow (rpms oscillate a lot though). But this year it happened again (after I cleaned out the carb) and just doesnt stay running.

I'll push the primer button once or twice, it'll run for 1 to 5 seconds (on the 1st pull) and then give up. manually fiddling the throttle does nothing. Sometimes I can keep it going by continually 'pumping' the primer button

The only thing I havent replaced is the rubber primer 'button' and associated hose. On this model, the primer button is mounted to a 'control panel' and is connected to the bottom of the carb via a 4" piece of tubing. The air pressure from the primer button goes to the underside of the diaphragm...I'm not sure why this would keep a engine from running.

the diaphragm is new as of last year - no visible tears but small rubbers are sometimes deceiving...

Spark is strong, compression feels good (havent checked). These things aren't tough to figure out - what am I missing ?

-John

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2009 Kia Sedona
2009 Honda Odyssey EX-L
12006 Jetta Pumpe Duse
(insert Mercedes here)

Husband, Father, sometimes friend =)