Thanks for your help guys. This mower is now all fixed and running absolutely spot on. I took it out for a good test and it performed much better than expected. The new filter was the finishing touch.
All I can say to others is look very closely at the filter and whilst it may look clean the key is whether or not it has oil residue on it, I should have looked closer as bigted mentioned earlier. Mine did and until I took a closer look it caused me some frustration however the mower is now running spot on.
A good learning experience as you suggested Bigted. Hopefully it can be of use to some others.
Grumpy, Bigted and Roebuck thanks for your efforts. I appreciate the assistance. Time for this mower to keep working and staying off the scrap pile for at least a little while yet.
I must say these are a supprisingly sweet sounding engine.
