I bought a used backpack leaf blower (Echo PB-260L) 3 years ago. It is beat up, but has worked up to today. It tries to start but just won't.
Out of desperation I am replacing the spark plug.

Questions:
1) The manual says to use a NGK BPMR7A. It actually had a NGK BPMR8Y. What is the difference between the two, and does it matter?
2) Lowes has a First Fire FF-13 which supposedly replaces either of the NGK. Will that be okay?
3) How exact does the gap has to be? It is speced to 0.026 and was actually 0.024. Regapping didn't help, but I wonder if the 0.002" difference would matter.
4) I tried it at first using year old gas. When that didn't work I emptied it and put in fresh gas. Still won't work. Was replacing the gas adequate, or should I have done something more?
5) If the spark plug doesn't help, any suggestions?

Thanks.

 

The Lowes spark plug doesn't help. Runs for a about 2 seconds and dies.
So the plug could be inadequate, there could still be old gas in it, or the carburetor is clogged. Probably the last. Any way the incompetent can clean it?

 

They are similar plugs. The biggest difference I can find is the temp. It might have been the only one available at the time or they might have tried to solve a problem with a different temperature plug.

No, generally a gap .002" out of spec does not cause major problem. It' may not be optimal but it should still run.

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You've done a lot of talking about the spark plug. Have you verified that you have spark? Have you verified that fuel is making it into the combustion chamber? Don't get buried in find details until you check the basics required to make an engine run.