Outdoor Power Equipment and Small Engines - Older Tecumseh 4.5 Horse Snowblower

The house my wife and I recently moved into came with an older 4.5 or 5 horsepower Tecumseh snowblower (I can get the model #). I tried it out for the first time last night as we've been getting dumped on. It had about 1/4 tank of gas left in it from last season and I'm sure this is where my problem is but I added some new gas to it, it ran great for about the 1st 1/2 hour and then as I continued it would run for about 5 minutes then die, I would let it sit for a few minutes then it would start back up and run for a few more minutes then die again. I did notice that when I turned the choke on while it was about to die, it would fire up then finally quit. It did this 4 or 5 times until it got dark and I quit. I've been told that it may have something to do with condensation in the tank from last season, or the gas was dirty causing the carb to malfunciton. Any ideas?

jgpardee81
There a couple of things to check for, I believe what is happening is your float bowl is filling up too slowly and will not remain full ,henceyour running out of fuel after 5 minutes. First off, do you have any type of restriction in the fuel line and/or is your fuel shut off turned off or plugged? (if you have one on that machine) Second , possibly your float is not pivoting properly and not allowing the bowl to fill up quick enough.
What I would do on something like this is a complete carb cleaning and also replace all the fuel line and if it has one, the fuel shut off.
You can go to this site and d/l a copy of the 4 cycle manual for your reference. http://www.cpdonline.com/692509.pdf
Let me know how you do.

snoman