I took the carburetor completely off and apart. I cleaned every orifice I could find. I didn't have a pipe cleaner or wire, but I had a very small paper clip which I used to gently push through the holes in the main jet. I also picked up a copy of the B&S manual from Northern Tool. I cleaned the carb with carb cleaner last night. I was careful to remove all the washers and o-rings that could have gotten solvent on them. When I got home today I put everything back together. I put sea foam in my gas. I had put Stabil in my gas canister before I refilled the tank today. I tried to start it. It wouldn't start. I removed the plug again. This time, I noticed what looked like kind of a wet oily black substance on the tip of the plug which I wiped off. I replaced the plug and pulled. Nothing. Tried it several more times. Then I re-attached the coil cable to the plug :) and pulled again. Still nothing. I sprayed some carb cleaner in the carb intake. Two pulled and it started. Ran for about 2 seconds and died. Pulled. Would not start again until I sprayed the intake. Rinse and repeat. It just won't stay running. I thought it was a fuel problem, but I've exhausted everything that I thought would be related to fuel.

Ya, but--- the simple, old, engines had either a choke, or a primer bulb, or both! This new type has everything except some way to entice the fuel to enter the intake manifold! Which was accomplished by the primer bulb, or the manually operated choke. This new process would have the operator running along side with a squirt gun of gasoline=squirting it into the carb intake, to keep it running! I'm thinking the smart (I use that term loosely) guys at the factory design shop must of been thinking that the fuel would just run down into the carb, and it'd stay running. And, i think that they just figgered that the owner had lots of time to pull the rope lebenty-seven times, until it either started, or the owner would just push it into the nearest creek, and go buy another one!

@walt2002, hey i was wondering if you were still here, i have read many of your replies and was hoping to hear from you and mownie, you 2 seem to have a wealth of knowledge on these things, i will try the carb first, because it is the easier than the head, but how would the carb cause fire to pop in the carb? im no genius but it seems compression is coming through the carb, and with the few parts in the carb, even no diaphragm, i cant under stand how it would be bad, do they have a ball and spring behind a welch plug like the old model walbro carbs?, i remember years ago when i worked on them a rule of thumb was if you shook them and heard no rattle they were no good, it had something to do with a barometric pressure adjuster valve, you didnt have to adjust the carb in higher locations as you did a b&s carb, just wondering, because i cleaned the carb twice, i put it in a bowl of water while disassembled and used a small straw to blow air through every hole, got bubbles on all, but i will swap them anyway and see, i just want to know what it is, thanks for your advice man

***"Mowie, while you have written an impressive book, some of which actually applies to the question at hand, I question that portion."*** OK, It is "an alternator" by the modern definition of alternator. That means the alternating current (which is caused by the alternating North & South poles passing the coil) is presented to a diode to be rectified electronically by a semi-conductor, instead of being rectified physically/mechanically by a rotating commutator. And keep in mind, I am talking about an alternator that uses permanent magnets to create the rotating field. Also, keep in mind that these alternators actually swap the roles of the same compontents (rotating member= rotor, stationary member= stator). In a "DC generator", the current created is AC, but the useful OUTPUT power produced in the rotor (aka armature), is rectified by the commutator at the same time it is delivered to the machine's electrical system via a set of brushes that contact the commutator. The field is stationary in a DC generator, and varying the voltage fed to the field, will vary the voltage output of armature. Because the commutator is a physical and mechanical, "rotating contactor", the polarity of the current being created in each individual coil of the armature (and their are several) must be absoutely identical to the polarity being created in the other coils, otherwise, you would be feeding a pulse of "opposite polarity" into the battery whenever that coil's commutator bars came into contact with the brushes. This opposite polarity pulse would have the effect of "discharging" the battery each time it offered its current to the mix. But I don't know of ANY DC generators ever employing "permanent magnets" as the sole exciting source of field current. Yes, all the DC generators did/do have and use, residual magnetism in the field shoes as a result of the electromagnetic processes that take place during operation. But, that residual magnetism came to be used as a means of ensuring that the generator could begin making electricity by itself (with no external current applied to the field), even if the machine's battery was "stone dead". But, if there was an application that used PERMANENT MAGNETS as the "sole" exciting field for a DC generator, ALL magnets in the field would have to be arranged in identical polarity or the output would have some pulses of opposite polarity, which would have the same effect on a battery as if you fed alternating current to the battery, and a battery can not utilize AC because a battery is strictly a DC based component. AC fed to a battery results in a "null charge condition" because for every pulse of current in the correct direction that could add a bit of charge to the battery, there is also a pulse of current in the wrong direction that subtracts a bit of charge from the battery. OK, let's jump to an alternator that uses several permanent magnets in a rotating field (flywheel in this case) and several coils of wire in a stationary output component. This hypthetical example alternator is a "single phase" version (meaning it has only one output conductor offering power to be rectified). Keep in mind here that electricity travels at about the same speed as light (commonly referred to as 186,000 miles per SECOND), while the flywheel turning 3,000 RPM, is hardly even creeping in comparison. As each permanent magnet in the flywheel rotates past one of the coils in the stator, a current is induced in the coil. Because the magnet has a North pole & a South pole, the induced current will change its direction of flow, from "North to South", or, from "South to North", depending on the physical orientation of magnet's North & South poles as it passes the coil. The output current of each coil tries to travel out of the coil, through the other coils (they are all in series on this circuit), and into the electrical system of the machine, THROUGH THE BATTERY, and out to ground where this pulse will re-enter the coil wiring at the other end of the coil (stator wiring has 2 ends, one end is "output", the other end is connected to the engine and chassis ground, if you do not provide a complete path, you get no flow of current). OK, it does not matter which direction the induced current is flowing through the coil when the induction begins (magnet is approching the coil), nor which way the induced current is flowing when the induction ends (magnet is departing the coil) because the rectfying diode is only going to allow the half of the total power pulse that has the correct polarity, to pass through and travel the complete circuit through the battery and finally back the stator through "the back door". When multiple magnets are used with a single circuit stator, either the magnets, or the individual coils must be "staggered" or, unevenly spaced along the circular layout alternator to prevent any "butting of heads" of power pulses that might be caused by two magnets having opposite polarity. And because all of the electrical induction and power output pulses occur at light speed, an individual coil waiting for the next passing magnet, could be likened to someone waiting at a bus stop, for a bus that only comes by twice a day. So, it does not matter about the polarity of each magnet in this application, the diode decides which half of each pulse it will permit to go to the battery, whether that correct half shows up at the gate first......or last.