# Carb bowl is off, gas is on - but there is no flow



## FrostyTheBeerMan (Jan 13, 2017)

Hi everyone,

I have dad's Ariens snowblower which was brand new - only used about 4 or 5 times, but has been sitting in his garage unused for about 5 years.
It was full of gas.

Today I removed the bowl of the carb, and then opened the gas tank fuel line, and to my surprise, nothing start flowing out. I moved the little floater that sits in the carb
up and down a few times, to see if that would get things moving, and nothing.

I think something is gummed up so badly, there is no flow.... is that normal that gas isn't just pouring out of the open carb ? ( bowl is removed )

Thanks for any help.


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## JLawrence08648 (Jan 15, 2017)

Needle valve is stuck up, it's under the float, or you don't have enough gas, remove the line from the carb and see if fuel comes out.


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## RedOctobyr (Mar 2, 2014)

With the bowl removed, gas in the tank, and the fuel shutoff valve open (if it has one), gas should be coming out of the carb. 

There is likely a needle valve in the carb bowl area, which gets pushed up by the float, to close off the fuel flow. You could try seeing if that needle valve is moving, as you move the float up/down. 

Or, pull the fuel line off the carb, and see if gas comes out of the fuel line, at least. If it does, you have a carb problem. And if it doesn't, hold off on worrying about the carb, until fuel is at least reaching the carb.


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## vinnycom (Nov 6, 2017)

dont assume shutoff fuel valve is working. ask me how i know.
remove carb and see if fuel comes out of fuel hose


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## FrostyTheBeerMan (Jan 13, 2017)

Hi guys !
thanks for all the quick replies ! I'm going to check this tomorrow.

Right now, in my area it's 8:53 pm and very heavy snow falling. Tomorrow I'm going to check that valve. Will report back !


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## Kiss4aFrog (Nov 3, 2013)

Yup, never trust a fuel shut off. There are two other things to keep in mind if it's not something already mentioned. On some machines there is a screen inside the fuel tank that strains the fuel leaving the tank and it can get plugged. In very rare cases if it's really old fuel line the line can start to fail from the inside having been attacked by the alcohol in current fuels. The line can swell over the summer and then you get no flow that next fall.


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## Snowbelt_subie (Dec 20, 2016)

man 5 year old gas thats going to be nasty gumming up everything.


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## JLawrence08648 (Jan 15, 2017)

If you get it unstuck THEN get it running, you will either need to clean and rebuild the carburetor, replace the carburetor, or you can first try running a strong concentration of a fuel cleaner in the gas tank. Seafoam is very popular on this forum. I've used it and it is very good. Berryman's B12 is also suppose to be very good.


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## orangputeh (Nov 24, 2016)

whatever you do to , it's not going to be a quick fix. clean out fuel tank, new filter, new hose, clean carb , new plug maybe.

small engines do not like 5 year gas. lots of people around here have problems starting their blowers or have surging carbs from just leaving gas in the tank over the summer.


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## stromr (Jul 20, 2016)

orangputeh said:


> whatever you do to , it's not going to be a quick fix. clean out fuel tank, new filter, new hose, clean carb , new plug maybe.
> 
> small engines do not like 5 year gas. lots of people around here have problems starting their blowers or have surging carbs from just leaving gas in the tank over the summer.


I agree 100%, you're going to have to clean everything out from the tank to the carb and even then there is no guarantee. Welcome to the world of small engines and fuel system maintenance!


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## paulm12 (May 22, 2015)

orangputeh said:


> whatever you do to , it's not going to be a quick fix. clean out fuel tank, new filter, new hose, clean carb , new plug maybe.
> 
> small engines do not like 5 year gas. lots of people around here have problems starting their blowers or have surging carbs from just leaving gas in the tank over the summer.


true, but I like 5 year old gas. It results in free/inexpensive lawnmowers and snowblowers for me to pick up and work on !!
.


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