Around 8 AM I decided I'd go blow off the driveway, in order to make it easy on myself.
Ha.
...the snowblower has sat, unused, for two years. After finding half a gallon of gas in the little can (for the push mower) and mixing it with 2-cycle oil, I foolishly looked into the blower's tank and thought, "Oh, there's plenty of gas in there already."
WRONG! After sitting for two years, the stuff in the thing's tank was not gasoline any longer. You'd think I'd know better, but NO, I blithely primed the carb and started pulling the starter cord.
Pull. Pull. Pull. Pull. Pull. Pull. Pull. Pull. Pull. Pull. Adjust choke. Pull. Pull. Pull. Pull. Pull. Pull. Pull. Pull. Pull. WTF?
...finally I twigged to the concept that the fuel's probably gone bad after two years in storage and dumped the tank into a drain pan. I refilled it with fresh fuel and primed the carb.
Pull. Pull. Pull. Pull. Pull. Pull. Pull. Pull. Pull. Pull. Pull. Pull. Pull. Pull. Pull. Pull. Pull. ARGH! Pull. Pull. Pull. Prrpp...
Okay, finally.... Pull. Pull. Pull. Pull. Pull. Pull. Pull. Prime. Pull. Prrrrrmmmmmmrmrmmmvmvmmmm.... Prime. Pull. Pull. PRrrmmmmmemmmvmvmmmmmbmbmmmmmmmmmmmbrmmm
*sigh*
Prime. Pull. BRUMMMMM!! Brumm...brup. Prime. Pull. BRUMM!!VRUJMMMMMMM!MMmmmmmm!! ...and at long last it stayed running!
For fuck's sake, it took me longer to start the thing than it did to blow the snow off the fricking driveway.
If I had just stopped for a moment and thought about what happens to gasoline which sits, unused, for two years, I would have dumped the fuel from the tank right away and saved myself about 80% of the pulling I had to do.
Anyway, the thing worked, and I got the driveway clear of the four inches of snow that covered it; but it was still snowing, and we got about 2-3" more snow. Just about 20 minutes ago I noticed that the snow had tapered off, so I went out and did the driveway again. The blower started on the first pull. It gave me a little trouble with the choke setting--I had to start it again--but once it got warmed up it was all good.
Clean, fresh fuel--what a concept.
...and I salted the driveway, too, so it should be nice and clear. At least until it snows again later tonight.
*sigh*