Outdoor Power Equipment and Small Engines - Rookie Snowman, Need help with Snow blower

This is our first winter in the Buffalo, NY area. I am a pastor at a local church and there is a snow blower. Yard Machines, 8.5 hp, 26". I have replaced the shoes, have to work on the handle, but it is very usable. However, I could not get it to start yesterday ( Which i was looking forward too!!) I also put in a new spark plug. It has an electric start and a pull of course. Electric start turns it but that it is it. Pull start does nothing. The first pull it acted like it was going to work but shut down and that was that. I think the machine is probably a 99 or 00 model. Would you have any ideas of what it could be? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks you
CP

Sounds like the carb is varnished up and you may possibly have water in the gas. 2 oz of Isopropel drygas will take care of the water. The carb should be taken apart & cleaned to remove the varnish. Soak it in carb cleaner(available at auto parts stores) overnite. I use Gunk. Works great. You have to clean off the Gunk with water. Then, using compressed air, blow out ALL the holes & gas lines in the carb. This should solve you staring problems.

If tearing apart a carb sounds beyond your comfort zone, most small engine repair shops will do it for you for around $25-30..... maybe a little more since the last one I had done was about 5 years ago. Definitely sounds like old gas sitting in the carb is your problem.

Before you take it for service just check to make sure the tank is full and that the fuel shut off is open.

This is not about your original problem, that the other guys have covered quite well,but those shoes you replaced are not real great items they are hot rolled steel and wear quite quickly but i guess that is what they want. I wore out a set in one year,then made a set out of bed rail (like what holds your mattress up) and they havent shown any wear yet. Just a tip for the future. Good luck with your new assignment. RW

I will guess this is a Tec engine and you have spark so here we go;
Clamp off the fuel line, remove the carb bowl, release the clamp to see if you have good fuel flow to the carb, raise the float to see that it shuts off the flow with minimal pressure, clean the junk from the bowl, clean the bowl nut, 2 holes close to the bottom and a tiny one about midway up(I usually use the wire from a twist tie), spray all holes, cracks and crevases with brake parts cleaner, reassemble and you should be good to go. If this didn't work it will be probably be necessary to rebuild the carb. If I missed something one of the real mechanics will post to help further. Refer to the photo below. Have a good one . Geo
http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z120/geogrubb/tec_bowl_nut.jpg