Auger Question

[Jiggitt]

I have a 6 year old Strikemaster Lazer Express 2hp. My problem ( I think) is that the gas is not getting to the engine. I changed the plug, put in new gas and couldn't get it to fire up. I pulled and pulled with the choke wide open and then noticed that there was not gas in the gas line. I've had the auger stored in my non-heated detached garage and was thinking maybe something was froze up in there that would not allow the gas to go through the line up to the engine. Does anyone have any ideas?

[Chris Stolp]

Bring it inside to warm up then retry. If you now see gas in the line its almost a sure bet you had some water in there. Put an alcohol based fuel dryer in there and try again. If after warming the auger you still have no fuel in the line then its probably clogged up and you'll need to disassemble and clean it.

[Surface Tension]

Its possible you have some moister in the carb and it froze, its also possible you have a dirty carb. A story of a guy that brought his auger into the house to thaw it out just popped in my head. He burned the house down when the gas leaked out of his auger or something like it.

So what ever you do don't leave an unattended gas engine or can for that matter in your home.

Check the gas line for air leaks. You said you had the choke wide open, you should have the choke closed on a cold start. Or maybe you meant you had the throttle wide open in which case always leave it closed when starting a cold engine. Only time you would hold the throttle open is with a flooded engine.

Sometimes when a 2 stroke type carb (carb with internal fuel pump) sits for an extended period of time or just from draining the carb for storage, the diaphragms for a lack of better word, dry out but really the diaphram is stretched out. The impulse from the crankcase just isn't enough sometimes when that old diaphram is dry. Well I should say not enough when pulled over by hand. You can pull the air cleaner off and prime the carb with mixed gas. Its going to fire and run for a while. This might be enough and you'll find your good to go and sometimes it takes more priming.

Now if your able to prime the engine but the auger still won't pump fuel or stay running on its own you have an issue with the carb. Richening the mixture by backing the screw out a 1/4 turn and repeating the starting sequence might work. You'll find if the carb is dirty or theres a worn diaphram you won't get any results with the mixture screw and its time for a cleaning. You can try the miracle cure by adding a carb cleaner to the gas and running that through along with a long soak or you can get right in there and clean and overhaul the carb.

[Gus]

ST has good advice. I have the same problem with the same auger. Just take off the air cleaner and dump a little gas in the carb to get it going. It will probably take a few repeats but it always works for me.

[berke99]

Here is what I have to do every year- remove the 2 nuts that hold the air filter on, next on the side of the carb there is 1 large screw, remove that and take the square plate off. Under that is a rubber gasket with small flappers. Peel it off gently and then spray with carb cleaner. put the rubber gasket back on and the square plate cover with the screw. Very easy to do and I have to do this every year and I have never replaced the rubber gasket yet. The little flappers always stick and don't allow gas through.