I used my Ariens snowblower twice today as we had steady snowfall. When I went to use it this evening, I topped up the gas, connected a power source, opened the choke and hit the power button. For more than 20 minutes the motor would not catch. Having thought I flooded it, I shovelled the snow manually for 10 minutes, came back to give it another try. Had it serviced this past fall and everything was working great. What am I doing wrong?

Is the starter sound the same as it has always sounded or is it just a high speed spinning noise with no engine turning over?

At first it was trying to turn over but not catching. After the 5th or 6th try it was just spinning. That's when I stopped to give it a rest

Remove the out shell of the blower and you'll see the engine and the starter. The tip of the starter has a shaft that allows a whitish nylon gear to spin and slide down the shaft like a candy cane. Try your starter now and observe. If the nylon gears just spins but does not move down the candy cane then the shaft is gummed up and can be sprayed with a white lithium grease. If the gear slides down the shaft but does not engage the engine the gear has some missing teeth and must be replaced. That gear is made of nylon so it can be sacrificed instead of wrecking the engine flywheel. It is actual designed to be the weak link. If you wish more help come back with your observations. Good luck, Bob

Sounds like your starter may have went. Does the snowblower also have a manual pull start? If it doed did you try that?