Thanks to all respondents. The plug was new, the exhuast ports were cleaned
before I broached the question. I had replaced the air filter with another
brand because the store was out of Lawn Boy filters. Hey! it looked OK but
it was thicker than the original - no big deal. Apparently, being thicker
was restrictive enough to make it perform as if in choke mode, more or less.
Anyway, I got a proper filter and the problem went away. Esp. thanx to Don
Foreman who said I had pretty much diagnosed the problem already. Must be
true - what they say about great minds, huh?

Bob Swinney
"Don Foreman" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 18 May 2005 23:24:43 -0500, "Robert Swinney"
wrote:

Help! Advice please for my 2-stroke Bad Boy, errr, make that Lawn Boy.
It
is very hard to start and appears like, smells like it floods when
attempting to cold start. All I did this year after replacing the spark
plug was to squirt some Gumout carb cleaner into the running engine air
intake until it would momentarily stall while digesting the carb cleaner.
With that apparent success under my belt, I replaced the air cleaner with
a
foam rubber sponge cut down from another brand that was available. So
far,
I haven't taken the sponge out to see if that influences the problem one
way
or the other. I had a similar problem once with a motorcycle air cleaner
that had been overzealously soaked with oil. Any suggestions?

I see lots of solutions offered to problems you may or may not have,
but it sounds to me like you've answered your own question. Worked OK
before replacing air cleaner. Now it smells flooded. Once had a
similar problem with a soaked MC aircleaner. Hmm.

As Gary Brady noted, pull the sponge out of the airecleaner to
eliminate that variable, see if it'll run. You may need to clean or
even change the plug since it was flooding and it's a 2-stroke.

If that works, then figure out how to filter its air.

If it doesn't work and ignition looks OK, my solution to balky
lawnmowers and snow blowers has always been to get a kit, thoroughly
clean and overhaul the carb. It has always worked on engines that
weren't so worn out it was time to replace them.