The old dinosaur Hobart took to spitting and coughing while running rods hot at Stan's establishment recently...one of the very few times she has ever let me down.  Of course I had bragged how Stan would be impressed with it before we started!  JEEZ I hear enough BS from either side of the welding fence over running such a machine...well I really like how it welds...much wetter then say a BB300 but not as wet as an old SA 200 with plenty of adjustment room to go either way with the arc force knob.  Well after making sure it was not usual suspects like a ridiculously tight fuel passage on the valve/bowl...I took her home after we were done for some TLC.  Four hours of carb identification led to a full blown (well done) carb kit and all of the sudden my governor, idle air, stops, and solenoid settings are all whack as could be.  We spent three hours tweaking because she will go from idle to full boat on 3/32 and 1/8 rods smooth as silk...pull out some 3/16 set to broil and she may or may not stumble trying off idle.  I am afraid I must do a governor reset and we have misplaced my manual which devotes three whole pages to setting the governor correctly.  IT is all so sensitive to tension and setup ....there are only like 8 different adjustments and if any single one is off you will have trouble.  AHHH the joys of keeping vintage machinery in the field...would not have it any other way...the old beast is a special girl!!!!

EDIT: part two   Well pulling out my meager mech skills I did some Ignition timing checks and eureka!  I do not know how or why it got off (aint touched timing since I first brought it back to life) but...setting factory solved the idle up stumbles.  I am a little shocked at the amount of ignition advance, with advancer it is sitting around 30 degrees btdc, that is hot motor race car territory if oldtimer memory serves me right....very strange considering this is a tractor cam low rpm high torque setup.  I would think backfires galore especially with the hours on this thing, but that is where it likes it.    I get a slight grunt lighting off at 200 amps but she lights reliably and settles in for a steady burn...good enough for me.  Wonder if all this will net some better fuel economy and surely it will....up to this point that has been my only complaint about this odd somewhat rare rig....eats gas like an old SA 200 set to "dig to china" .