Thanks Dave

You might be on to something there. I really thought Tom had it nailed,
but there is no filter. There is no petcock on this blower either. The
Sears manual lists cleaning the fuel line as one possible solution for
erratic running. (I don't quite get that,, but who knows.) It feels
like 40 below right now and I don't want to bring the blower inside to
work on a gas lie so I'll have to wait for a break in the weather to
check things out. (It's snowing now too.) I'll give the needle valve a
good cleaning .

Thanks a ton
Bill