atomarc has a good point.. take proper saftey steps before fiddling with fuel.. perhaps most importantly, do it in a well ventilated area.
I reccomed keeping a bucket of sand around for just such occasions.. spraying water on a gas fire can sometimes make things worse.
Another thing you might want to try if you ARE getting gas to the carb.. look down the carb hole and pump the throttle and see if it's squirting. If not give the side of the carb a few taps with the handle of a ratchet.
I had a carb do that to me once.. thing ran fine then just all of a sudden cut out and wouldn't start again. I checked the fuel lines and it was getting gas to the front of the carb, and it seemed like when I pumped it the jets were clear, but it just wouldn't start.
I could dump a little gas in the carb and she'd fire right off, and run till it burned up all the gas, but then it would die again.. I figured I must have had some "big easy" gas, and flushed the tank.
With a full tank of brand new gas, it still wasn't starting.. double checked the fuel supply to the carb, stood back, and said, "FV<k it!" and tossed my ratchet at the carb.
Then I heard a "Suuuuuulllllurrrrrrrp" noise, and thought what the hell, i'll try it again.. and it fired right up!
Something was sticking in there that was cutting the fuel supply off, and it wouldn't start. A medium power whack with a ratchet handle and the carb would make a sucking sound and then it would fire right up.
I ran a tank of clean gas thru it treated with some STP fuel cleaner crap, and it started fine ever since.. whatever was gunked up must have got de-gunked.
