I bought a 26 inch MTD snow blower 2 years ago. this would have been it's third season if it had started. Not being able to pull start it I decided to use the handy dandy electric starter. No such luck. When I opened the switch cover one of the screw heads was sheared off leaving the power wire undone.
The cause of the motor not starting in the first place was that there was an inch of rust and sludge inside of the fuel tank. How it got there I'll never know. But I do know that I will never purchase one of these machines again.