wrote in message
oups.com...
Thanks to everyone who has responded to my original post. Your help
is
greatly appreciated.

I was finally able to get at it again today and I'm happy to report
that everything is fine now.
The motor runs like a charm and it starts on the first pull. Here is
what I did:

took the carb apart once again. This time I meticulously cleaned all
little channels and orifices. Blew with compressed air to make sure
all passages are fine.
I dumped out the old gas, some of which spilled on the garage floor.
It sat there for quite a while and didn't evaporate. So just out of
curiosity, I spilled a small amount of fresh gas to see if it
evaporates first..... I immediately noticed the difference in
consistency between the two fluids. The old stuff was thicker than
the
new.
It has been about four hours since I did that and there are still
remnants of the old gas on the floor, while the fresh has since
evaporated.

I'm not into gasoline sniffing but I noticed a difference in smell
between the two as well.

I believe that was my initial problem from the get go. While I did
not
notice any clogging in the carburetor, it's quite possible that the
engine had trouble sucking the old gas out of the bowl, since it was
so thick (just a hypothesis).


That gas was probably your entire problem. It would be interesting to
try to burn it.

So it looks like I will have to introduce my brother to a gas
stabilizer and make sure he uses it before storing the mower.


Or just run it dry at the end of the season. Choke it or push the
primer as it runs dry to keep it running and burn off as much gas as
possible.

Bob