Ok I had another play with the mower. I lubed up the linkages with the throttle mechanism, and took of the air filter assembly. I used your idea with the bread tie, to clean the air intake to the pilot tube. While I did this I notice the main fly doesn't quite close the chamber fully, but am unsure if that is what it should be. I also notice that there isn't much change to the air intake via this and would like to know how the fuel system works to adjust RPM.

Anyway, after I did this, and everything was back on, low and behold the easy start was back. Just a simple pull to start and the engine ran pretty nice there and also in the run setting. It also had a noticeable slowing down of RPM as I went down the range to stop.

Unfortunately this didn't last. The starting is still perfect, but it runs very poor (it putt putts), with a dark exhaust. When it does it run pretty fast and well, but the change in speed isn't as good, and it basically stops on the spark cut off switch. So we are on the right track, but need a bit more work. If I had a write up concerning the throttle adjustment it would help, along with some info regarding the fuel/air actuation method. Here are some pics in the cold start and off throttle positions and the throttle mechanism positions.
[Linked Image]

Cold start, notice the slightly open fly position
[Linked Image]

Stop

Last edited by elevatorman; 10/07/15 03:48 AM.