Purney,

Your problem could be too much fuel or not enough fuel and it's important to figure out which scenario it is to help you troubleshoot the problem. A flooded symptom would be black smoke out the exhaust when the engine finally did start. There might be a strong smell of gas and the plugs would be black and sooty. When the engine did start back up, it would cough and stumble as it cleared its lungs!

Fuel starvation would be a possibility too, but no black smoke or plugs and probably no stumbling when it did start. After a spell of ten years and these kinds of problems, a carburetor rebuild would be a good idea anyway.

Stuart