Engine Engine runs too fast post rebuild

[Jercraftsman]

I killed my 2003-2004 craftsman 917.378550 self-propelled with Honda 5.5hp when I ran over a hidden tree stump. I took it apart and found that everything was still in one piece, but the timing belt had jumped a few teeth. I fixed the timing, but after I got it back together, it seems to accelerate way too high.

I don't know the proper name for the mechanism, but there is a lever that connects from inside the engine to a rod that drives the throttle. I believe it is designed to surge the engine up when you run over a heavy clump of grass. That lever fell out when I was disassembling and I put it back in in a down position beside the centrifugal gear (name?), but I'm wondering if that should have gone horizontal over the gear top instead.

Does anyone have a diagram that shows the innards of this engine?

 

[robert@honda]

Some models of that engine have a control base, others do not. Here are some pages from a shop manual that should help:

 

[Jercraftsman]

Thanks, that helps a bunch. So now I can see its the governor arm shaft that I'm wondering about. It appears from the diagram that the paddle on the end of it would go down rather than horizontal. I'm thinking I must have installed it right, so not sure at this point why it's not kicking the engine RPMs down. Perhaps the governor slider isn't sliding freely. Looks like I may be dissecting it again.

 

[Jercraftsman]

I realized I never came back and posted the solution. It turns out that I was able to rig a manual throttle by installing a spring wrong and tying a cord to the throttle. Got through mowing twice and then magically the governor assembly started working correctly again. I'm going to assume that the slider wasn't well lubricated when I threw it back together and it took a mowing or two to get it sliding freely again. The mower is heading for season 11.