Outdoor Power Equipment and Small Engines - Tecumseh 8hp Runs Wild

The engine is off of an Ariens lawnmower, i don't know what year it is, but it has to be at least middle 80's. It's a Tecumseh VM80 8HP, i recently started the project of changing the piston rings, and refacing the valves. Well i've put it all back together, but something is wrong with my carburetor hookups, or the governor.

On this lawnmower there is a lever you use to start it, to either give it choke, or to give it higher RPMs, when i put it on choke it works fine, and it holds the throttle wide open. When i put it on slow it goes back to idle, but if i just start to pick the lever off of slow, the throttle jumps to full. When i start it, it runs like a charm, but it should never run that high of RPM. Is there something wrong with my governor setup, or did i connect the carburetor wrong? I think it has to do with the governor, but i don't know what to do about it, when i remounted the carb the governor arm seemed to be upside. None of the rods were able to reach the arm for connection.

If you need more info please tell, i'd be happy to go further in detail.

Was the governor assembly intact and in good condition on the inside? If so, did you loosen or remove the governor arm/lever on the outside of the engine? It does sound like you have no governor operation.

I did loosen and move the governor arm. The only reason was because it looked like the arm was upside down. I couldn't get any of the linkage cables to connect because they where to short. So i turn it 180 degrees, and then unscrewed it and flipped it around so it wouldn't rub on my rewind casing. Any clues?

Should be some helpfull info in this manual.
http://www.cpdonline.com/692509.pdf

I think i've come to the conclusion that my governor clamp is broken. Is the rod coming out of the crankcase, that the governor arm/clamp is attached to supposed to move freely? Obviously it is somthing to do with my govenor.

I don't know if this has anything to do with it either, but while i was trying to rotate the govenor arm around like i stated above, both of the things holding the rod coming out of the crankcase broke. So now the're rounded off and the rod and clamp don't have any resistance on the govenor rod. Anybody know where i can buy a new Govenor clamp?

Most any small engine repair shop should be able to get one for you. You'll need to set the governor as per the instructions in the manual Azis posted a link to.

Anybody know any online small engine stores?

Your local, small engine, self-employed, small business owner is a good source.