Snow Equipment Owning/Operating Snowblower won't idle

[BackwoodsMan]

My Yamaha YS828 snow blower has a fuel problem and I am not sure what to look for next. It will not hold idle unless I keep the choke at half set. It does run at full throttle with no choke. On the first start of this season it was running rough at all throttle and choke settings. I thought it might be old gas or water in the gas so I drained and refilled the tank. It did improve the full throttle running, but when I drop to idle it will stall unless I half set the choke. Any ideas or suggestions on what to try next would be appreciated.

 

[murphy1244]

My Yamaha YS828 snow blower has a fuel problem and I am not sure what to look for next. It will not hold idle unless I keep the choke at half set. It does run at full throttle with no choke. On the first start of this season it was running rough at all throttle and choke settings. I thought it might be old gas or water in the gas so I drained and refilled the tank. It did improve the full throttle running, but when I drop to idle it will stall unless I half set the choke. Any ideas or suggestions on what to try next would be appreciated.

Run some Sea Foam thru it.

 

[32 chev]

X2 on the Sea Foam

 

[murphy1244]

X2 on the Sea Foam

Great minds think alike.

 

[leonz]

YES the sea foam is a must!!!


Have you checked the air filter or changed it?



Does your blue beast have the tracks?????????????????????????

 

[BackwoodsMan]

That's 3 recommendations for sea foam. I will certainly try that next. Until this post I never heard of sea foam. There is no air filter, just a protective cover over the carb intake. It does have tracks and can really move the snow. The only disappointment is the old school transmission with rotating disk. In hindsight I should have chosen the Honda with hydrostatic transmission.

 

[duroc]

That's 3 recommendations for sea foam.

The problem is a plugged or dirty idle/slow-speed passage of the carb. Sea Foam is good stuff and should clean it out for you, but don't expect it to work "on the spot". You may need to run through a tank or 2 of fuel (depending on tank size) before you see any results. If SF doesn't work, you'll probably need to remove the carb and clean it.

 

[vanb]

I had that same problem for the last couple of years (I don't use much) if it's like most under the carb there is a bolt under the float bowl. Unscrew it ( turn off fuel) there are 2 holes in it. The super small hole at the top of the bolt in the threads is what makes it idle. Spray it out with carb cleaner and use some soft copper wire to make sure it's opened. Also, stop using fuel with ethanol, use non oxygenated fuel in your small engines. You can search YouTube and there are videos on this. My snowblower idles great now, super simple fix, oh yeah use Sea Foam too.

 

[BackwoodsMan]

I added Sea Foam to the tank and ran that through. No noticeable improvement so I removed the carb and cleaned with Gumout. I removed all needle valves and sprayed all openings and made sure they were clear. Still no improvement. I have to spray starter fluid to get it started and it will run OK at half choke and it lunges with the choke off. It is still fuel starved and I am not sure why. Maybe it is leaking air at the engine to carb gasket. Any other thoughts?

 

[grsthegreat]

i had that same issue with my old push snowblower 2 seasons ago. I tried everything including 2 cans of sea foam. I finally pulled the carb and found that the hoses were rotting away and all the ports were clogged. I tried cleaning it and even bought a carb rebuild kit.

After all was said and done, it was no better. I ended up buying a new carb off of ebay for about $40, and now it runs like new.
For the past 2 years ive only run NON ethanol unleaded in my 2 stroke motors anymore, and i have had no further issues.


As a side note...unrelated to OP problems, i had a neighbor bring by his torpedo heater (125,000 btu kerosene heater) cause it wasnt working. We tore into it and found that the fuel uptake hose had turned into a pile of crap. The kerosene had eaten the hose. I wonder if there putting ethanol in kerosene now. His 2nd unit was working, but we opened it anyways, and the hose fell apart in my hands. This is like an explosive waiting to blow up. I really cant believe that our great govt is allowing ethanol in the fuel supply.