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).

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.

Thanks again to all.

Alex

Even with a good carburetor, stale fuel is a very common cause of failure to
start or poor running. Unless I know it is fresh, dumping the old fuel is
one of the first things I do when troubleshooting.

Don Young