Outdoor Power Equipment and Small Engines - Walbro carburetor problems

My friend gave me a homelite weedwhacker and said I can have it if I can fix it. From my experience, its always a crab problem, so i pulled the air filter and gave a little squrt of carb cleaner in there. It started and ran great for a few seconds. I noticed the fuel line was bad so I replaced it with the filter. I also pulled the carb apart and blew it all clean. I was all excited, easy fix. Pulled the carb, no start. I realized the manual primer bulb was was stiff and cracked. Replaced that, all excited, pulled the cord, no start. I can see plenty of fuel getting pumped through the priming bulb. The plug is getting kind of wet. Any ideas?

Will it still start with a shot of carb cleaner?
Check for spark...

It has excellent spark. And no it will not start with a shot of carb cleaner. Maybe this could tip someone off. It started great with carb cleaner before I fixed the primer bulb. Now it won't start at all. Again, spark is excellent. Is there too much gas somehow?

When you cleaned the carb, Did you install a carb kit or re-use the old diaghragms??? If you used the old ones,, Get a complete kit & re-do it... These little rubber parts get stiff with age & don't work properly....They can give a lot of headaches if you use the old ones thinking ""They still look O.K."" Good Luck...Roger

Good suggestion. The diaphram didn't seem stiff but I should get the kit. I noticed that as long as it has gas in the carb it won't run, not even with a squirt of carb cleaner. If I pump the carb empty, I can get it to run great with a squirt of carb cleaner. Could it be the wrong mixture of gas? It runs my Husqvarna chainsaw fine.

No, it's a carb problem, likely a stiff diaphragm holding the needle valve open.