A couple isolated th oughts.

Maybe the valve is the problem?
Since the valve unscrews from the tank, sometimes there is a screen on
the valve.
Oven cleaner does a nice job stripping varnish and stuff from the
inside of Tecumseh carburetors (found this out by trial and error).
Might work on valves, and fuel screens.

Might have to take the tank off, take the valve out and spray oven
cleaner into the hole left by the valve you just removed.

When you finish, rinse well with hot water to remove the sodium
hydroxide, byproducts, etc. And let dry thoroughly.

Hope that helps.

--

Christopher A. Young
You can't shout down a troll.
You have to starve them.
..

"Doghouse" wrote in message
...
I have an old Craftsman 8-hp chipper-shredder with a plastic gas tank.
A valve screws to the bottom of the tank. From there a foot of hose
leads to a transparent filter, from which another foot of hose leads
to
the carburetor.

When I try to start for the first time in the day there may be no gas
in
the filter. When I'm using it it may shut down with no gas in the
filter. Taking the cap off the tank doesn't help. Unfastening the
fuel
line and using a syringe to blow are into the fuel tank will get the
fuel going again.

I assume something sometimes blocks the screen in the tank. I can't
get
a good look at the screen. In the past, I have put water in the tank,
shaken it, and dumped it. That didn't help. With the tank off the
shredder, gas and water drained with no trouble.

Has somebody cured a similar problem?