The blower is about 5 years old and was running like a top until this
winter. It would run perfectly for a half hour or so then stall out.
The wife told me that she had solved the problem by simply topping up
the gas. I thought she was nuts, but that's exactly what it's doing. I
thought perhaps the gas cap might not have been allowing air in to tank
as the gas was used but when it started stalling I loosened the cap and
it did not help.

So in a nutshell if I top up the tank it will run perfectly for about
one inch of fuel then stall. If I top it up, it's good for another
inch. and so on! (I was thinking that I could simply move the tank up
about the height of the tank and my problems would be over) But I am
more interested in finding out what you think might be going on here.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

It could also be gunk on the float needle requiring more 'head
pressure' to get the fuel to flow past the needle.

Now my motorcycle has a screen-type filter on the petcock, and if the
bottom gets gunked it will flow fuel as long as its above the gunked
section.

So look for filters and an in-tank screen, and a pinched/collapsed fuel
hose as well.

Dave

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

Bill,

the vent on the fuel cap is clogged maybe with snow and ice...

same thing happend to me..

Mark

I want to thank Tom and Dave

I drained the tank, dropped the carb bowl and removed the needle valve.
Gave it a good blast of air (popped the gas tank lid right off) (Scared
myself (O: ) re assembled everything and pored a bout a half pint
into the tank and she ran perfectly. So I'd say the problem is solved.
I think the only thing I did wrong was not having disconnected the fuel
line at the tank because that way I would have expelled whatever it was
right out the end of the line. As it is I would bet money that I have a
glob of something in the tank waiting to go back down the line.

Another day perhaps!!

Thanks again case closed.

Thanks Mark

I had thought of that earlier and I tried running it after it had
stalled out with the cap right off of it (Falling off loose.) and it
had no effect so I discounted a clogged cap.

Thanks again Mark