# Husqvarna ST227P Not Starting



## cloves

Hi all, 

Went to start my snowblower this past week and noticed fuel leaking from the fuel on/off valve itself (Assume through the gasket). These valves unlike the old ones don't have screws so you can open them and just change the gasket. Anyways, I order a new on/off valve but its going to be over a week via amazon. I couldn't find a local store in NJ with the part. As a temporary measure I went and got some Permatex 29132 fuel sealer and sealed the area of the job while leaving the valve "on". I let it dry and then blew air through the valve to make sure it was open. Long story short my machine still didn't start. 

I took off the carb and the bowl and cleaned everything. Took the fuel tank and cleaned it out. Added fresh fuel still won't start. I have spark though. I then sprayed a few burst of starter fluid into the carb, turned right over and shut off after the fluid has been burned. 

So I believe I am still having a fuel problem. The fuel shut off valve has flow because I can blow air into on the one side and it comes out the filter side. Anyone have any thoughts on where to go from here? 

I put the sealant on the circle part of the switch.


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## tadawson

Clogged jet in the carb . . . needs cleaning. Perhaps the last time the shutoff was used (IE when it died) it barfed some swarf into the fuel line.


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## cloves

tadawson said:


> Clogged jet in the carb . . . needs cleaning. Perhaps the last time the shutoff was used (IE when it died) it barfed some swarf into the fuel line.


Thanks for the reply tadawson, I had the same thoughts but I did a through cleaning of the carb, similar to what this guy did on youtube. I had flow through all the orifices.


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## tadawson

Understood. It's just that if you see fuel going into the carb, and it fires on starting fluid, there isn't much left . . .


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## toromike

As tadawson says, if there's fuel in the carb and it fires on starting fluid but still won't run, the carb is still bad. Sometimes you can't clean out whatever is blocking the carb passage way. An ultrasonic cleaner can do a better job than just using a spray can. But you can buy a carb on amazon or ebay for about $15, that can often be the best solution.


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## SnowH8ter

Pull the valve cover off and ensure that all is well with the intake valve assy (valve is moving/spring etc is not broken).


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## cloves

Thanks guys for all the feedback, always better to have more then one brain thinking lol.

So I just pulled the hose going into the carb, gasoline is coming out but its not pouring out like I would expect. I opened the top of the gas tank to let more air in. I would think that once I pull that hose fuel should be gushing out at full with of the hose. Or is just some fuel coming out normal? Perhaps I am not getting enough fuel flow?

The carb is the same one in that video, some Chinese company called Huayi. I will look into ordering a new one once I swap the fuel pressure valve. 
@SnowH8ter interesting, would a broken valve intake assembly still allow the motor to turn on briefly using starter fluid?


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## SnowH8ter

cloves said:


> @*SnowH8ter* interesting, would a broken valve intake assembly still allow the motor to turn on briefly using starter fluid?


Yep. Starter fluid is much more volatile that fuel/air. The valve may be opening just enough to let a little starter fluid in but not enough to ignite a fuel/air mixture. Just a thought...


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## ST1100A

cloves said:


> Hi all,
> 
> Went to start my snowblower this past week and noticed fuel leaking from the fuel on/off valve itself (Assume through the gasket). These valves unlike the old ones don't have screws so you can open them and just change the gasket. Anyways, I order a new on/off valve but its going to be over a week via amazon. I couldn't find a local store in NJ with the part. As a temporary measure I went and got some Permatex 29132 fuel sealer and sealed the area of the job while leaving the valve "on". I let it dry and then blew air through the valve to make sure it was open. Long story short my machine still didn't start.
> 
> I took off the carb and the bowl and cleaned everything. Took the fuel tank and cleaned it out. Added fresh fuel still won't start. I have spark though. I then sprayed a few burst of starter fluid into the carb, turned right over and shut off after the fluid has been burned.
> 
> So I believe I am still having a fuel problem. The fuel shut off valve has flow because I can blow air into on the one side and it comes out the filter side. Anyone have any thoughts on where to go from here?
> 
> I put the sealant on the circle part of the switch.


I have seen many of those shut-off valves leak, not only at the shut-off lever, but many at the mounting gasket.
A lot of the replacement valves also leak everywhere imaginable. They had problems with poor assembly at the factory in China where they are made at.
They leaked at the tank to valve seal on most of them, and almost all of them leaked at the shut-off valve lever. It was poor quality construction of them from manufacture.
Good luck finding a good valve that will not leak on you, especially if you get one from somewhere other than a Dealer and it is not original equipment.
You may have a hard time to find the right O.E.M. part for it, many of the dealerships were having a hard time to get the part and to get a part that did not leak from new. It was a bad design from the start made with poor quality materials and no quality control at the manufacturer at all.


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## ST1100A

Check your valve clearance on your engine, those engines were notorious for having the valves out of adjustment, even from new. That will give you a starting problem and if they are too tight, it will give you a loss of power when running, especially after a few minutes of running when the engine warms up a little bit, so check the clearance just in case they are out of adjustment, a very common problem with Husqvarna engines. A lot of those motors were made by LCT that we had those problems with.


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## ST1100A

SnowH8ter said:


> Yep. Starter fluid is much more volatile that fuel/air. The valve may be opening just enough to let a little starter fluid in but not enough to ignite a fuel/air mixture. Just a thought...


I did see some of those engines with a broken intake valve stem. If that happened, you will have tight intake valve clearance if you measure it because the stem is being pushed all the way back to the rocker arm and the head of the valve is laying on top of the piston.
The valve was made by welding the valve head to the stem and they would break at the weld, right on the valve stem down near the valve head/face.


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## cloves

@SnowH8ter I wonder if I can spray some gasoline down into the carbs intake to see if it will start. 
@ST1100A Yup, I had to tighten the screw at the fuel shut off valve last year because of a leak. I took a look down the carb intake hole and then pulled the string, the instake stem went up and down. I never had a problem starting my machine (One pull starts) over the years and always shut off normally end of season. I assume these engines just have 1 piston and the valve functions as the intake and exhaust? 

Do you guys think that low fuel flow from the tank could also cause the no start/flow issue? I say no flow because if the engine started on starting fluid and I had flow it should have kept running.

I also took my spark plug out and I have compression in the piston.


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## cloves

Just wanted to update fella's. Thanks for all the input. I ended up searching for an "L15D carb" as rob suggested and was able to find one on amazon with gaskets for $25. I installed it and the blower fired right up. I was going to utlra sonic clean it but thought that the clog must be somewhere inside the little holes and it wouldn't work at cleaning that. I was able to blow berrymans clearly in all holes. 


I did notice when taking off the old carb that behind one of the gaskets was another small hole. I don't know where that one shoots out but I didn't clean that originally, perhaps the clog is in that jet. I did take out the plastic one under carb idle screw and clean that originally.


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## ST1100A

A lot of times that little hole that was hidden behind the gasket you saw is a bowl vent for the fuel bowl.
They place it like that so gas vapors will go into the engine and get burned off when the engine starts and runs, otherwise the vapors would go out into the atmosphere, its basically like a simple emission control device on the small engine.


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## cloves

Thanks for sharing this. Could that possibly be what would have caused the old carb to not start? I wonder where that hole leads to. I don't see how an ultra Sonic cleaner would be able to clean a tiny hole.


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## ST1100A

If it was a bowl vent tube hole, it leads down to the fuel bowl. Some carbs used 2 different vents, one on the engine side of the carb, the other on the air filter side. Some used both, some just used one or the other of them, depending on the application, but they usually manufactured the carb with both, sometimes one is plugged off from the factory.
On the engine side of the carb there would have been a "Cut out" where the hole was in some cases and others the Cut out was in a piece called an insulator that mounted between the carb and engine that would allow the air to pass through to be able to "Vent" the bowl.
If the vent becomes blocked off, then it would cause all kinds of weird problems, it can cause it to be overly rich in an instant, then it can starve for fuel in other instances because it can't equalize the air pressure in the fuel bowl.
When fuel is needed in the venturi, the higher air pressure pushes the fuel up through the jet because the venturi pressure is lower, the fuel is not actually "Sucked up" through the jet. Other instances when the fuel is filling the bowl when the float opens, it will cause extra air pressure because of the liquid fuel taking place of the air, and can cause excess fuel to force its way up through the jet and into the venturi of the carb causing a rich condition until the float closes the fuel off when the bowl is filled to its set level.
You could end up with a "Lean-Rich" surge out of it sometimes when a bowl vent is clogged. The vent is there to equalize and maintain atmospheric/normal air pressure in the bowl at all times.
They can clog with metal oxidizing/corrosion in the tiny air passageways that a lot of cleaners cant get out, you would have to try and stick a very thin wire through them and hope to be able to remove the build-up, sometimes you can clear it out, sometimes they corrode shut, then carb replacement is necessary.
If they are bad enough they can cause a "No Start" condition.


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## ST1100A

cloves said:


> Thanks for sharing this. Could that possibly be what would have caused the old carb to not start? I wonder where that hole leads to. I don't see how an ultra Sonic cleaner would be able to clean a tiny hole.


Your ultrasonic cleaners can break the dirt loose, but it wont remove it and it can move to another location in the tiny passageways and still clog them even more.
It doesn't happen all the time but it can happen. You would have to manually remove it once it breaks loose with a tiny wire or blow it out with an air gun.


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## SnowH8ter

cloves said:


> I ended up searching for an "L15D carb" as rob suggested and was able to find one on amazon with gaskets for $25. I installed it and the blower fired right up.


:thumbsup:


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## Jcstone3

Dumb question but where do you spray starter fluid in a ST 224? I hope I don’t need to take all the covers off. I don’t see access to carb.


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## Tony-chicago

Just spray it on the the area near the carb intake. The fumes are what need to get in there. No problem. Course carefully.


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## Jcstone3

Ended up taking off the cover to expose the carb and got it started. interestingly the problem in part was poor gas flow from the tank even though there was fuel in the tank. I guess more fuel was needed in the tank to maintain adequate flow and pressure into the carb.


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## Tony-chicago

Lines may be partially blocked with material or crud. Filter too.


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