# 1989 Toro 3521 won't run for more than 30 seconds.. help?



## kagaku (Aug 17, 2014)

My wife's aunt kindly gave us her old snowblower as she's moving from a house to an apartment; which is great because we just moved into a house with a huge driveway from an apartment (shoveling sucked!). She said it worked fine last winter, but I wasn't able to get it started.

Info: 
Toro 3521 model 38035, serial no 9000135 (1989), with a Tecumseh H35-45598T.

I drained the old gas completely, drained the carbs and fuel line, pulled the carbs and drained the float bowl as well. Gave the carbs a quick cleaning (fuel tank was in good shape, but rinsed that a bit using some gasoline), put it all back together. Also checked the plug, while it's a little dirty, it doesn't seem to be in need of replacement. Finally, I checked the oil - everything looked good there as well.

I went to start her up with fresh gas and it started up first pull. This was with "full choke" (and what I mean by full choke is the choke knob turned so that the butterfly valve on the carbs is fully open... is this full choke?), one squirt of the primer button and the throttle set to max. Once it started up, I tried lowering the choke (closing the butterfly valve). It seems to run fine, but suddenly about 30 seconds in it stalls out. 

I was able to restart it again after a couple pulls, but again no matter what I did with the throttle and choke, it stalls after about 30 seconds. I tried starting it and immediately putting a load on it (auger on, forward at high speed) and it seems fine - still stalls after 30 seconds or so.

My guess is a fuel issue, but I don't understand how it's getting enough fuel for 30 seconds and then stalling? Also, this is my first snowblower so please excuse my ignorance.. is it normal for the throttle to go back and forth on it's own a bit? Hard to explain the sound, but it's almost like the engine slowly revs itself in a very rhythmic fashion. The throttle seems to set itself regardless of what I actual set the lever to once I actually have it running (I did confirm the throttle lever does work...only when it's stopped?

I've tried the following adjustments:
1. Idle screw - I "raised" the idle a few turns, this seemed to allow it to run a bit longer, but not by much.
2. The fuel/air mix screw. Tried it at various settings.. 1 turn out, 2, 2 1/2, 3... no difference - which is odd? Not sure if I even have this correct? 
3. Various combinations of throttle and choke.. still stalls after 30 seconds or so.

My (limited) experience with engines is automotive and motorcycle related, so I assume I'm overlooking something simple. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!


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## Normex (Feb 21, 2014)

Hi, I'm not an expert neither but your choke explanation needs more explanation. When you want to start a cold engine you apply full choke, by full choke the butterfly would look like it is closed same as if you would put your hand to cover the carb opening. If the butterfly is open or in horizontal position where you can see further in the carb then it is not choked. I will let others chime in for the other details you submitted.

Good Luck

Norm


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## Shryp (Jan 1, 2011)

The first thing you need to know is "full choke" is when the butterfly is closed and blocking the air flow. When you started it with no choke it started right up, but then you closed the choke and suffocated the engine.

Still, you could possibly have a fuel problem. Did you make sure to clean the 1-3 tiny holes in the bolt that holds the carb bowl on?

Also, the carb bowl is suppose to be turned at a certain angle. The line across the bottom of the bowl is suppose to line up with the pin that holds the float on. This lets the float drop down into the deeper part of the bowl.

The starting position for the screws is 1.5 turns out for the main screw on the bottom and 1 turn out for the low screw on the side.

The idle screw for the throttle stop I am not sure, but as long as the throttle is turned up it should run.

Here are some good videos on snow blowers. Yours specifically should be the 4-5 HP videos, though they are all pretty much the same.
https://www.youtube.com/user/donyboy73/search?query=tecumseh


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## UNDERTAKER (Dec 30, 2013)

the butter fly is covering the open hole in full choke. one of the jets might be blocked, or it could be a float issue. ALOHA to the forms.


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## kagaku (Aug 17, 2014)

Looks like I had the float bowl rotated 90 degrees. Removed/re-attached it, everything is good now. Runs like new! Thanks everyone!


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## db9938 (Nov 17, 2013)

Good to hear.


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## CarlB (Jan 2, 2011)

sometimes it just something simple.


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## micah68kj (Oct 8, 2011)

iI like happy endings. Good job.


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