Mixed results today.
On the one hand, that Rally was a snap to get running. Before anything, I primed it and tried starting it. I figured it had, at the very least, bad gas, but it actually started at low idle while belching out smoke for a couple seconds before sputtering out. I went to check the throttle linkage and found that the throttle spring had actually come off. It wasn't broken, it just came off. I put it back on and adjusted the linkage. I checked the oil and found it was quite overfilled, so I drained it all out and put fresh oil in. Gave it a pull and it fired right up, and after a minute or so had burned off the oil that had dripped into the muffler. Just need to replace the starter rope and this one's good to go.
The Husqvarna on the other hand isn't going so well. Closer inspection of the friction disc system showed that that the belt driven pulley wasn't parallel with the belt. Looks like someone had tried to service it before hadn't put it back together properly. There is a plastic block that sits on top of the pulley that should sit in a groove on a metal bracket. Well it wasn't in that groove, and I had to disconnect the axle to put it back in place. Next up was the tensioner pulley that was seized. Managed to free that up and get it spinning. I after adjusting the cable it was all finally back in correct order, but I'm still left with one major problem. The friction disc has almost no rubber left on it.
This is a problem for two reasons: It looks like a bear to take off the shaft, and as I'm discovering, a lot of parts for this mower are "no longer available". It's also missing the panel that covers the drive system under the deck, as well as the cover for the belt.