Thanks Grump, Frily and everyone else for this thread. My 20+ yr. old Ariens w/ a 7 hp Tecumseh and bowl carb had the same problem of faltering and stalling under load. It took a rebuild kit and cleaning of the idle and main jets w/ copper wire to solve the problem, and a cutting and tightening of the governor spring to the throttle plate seemed to help.
One of you mentioned removing the main fuel jet and inspecting it. Do you mean the passage that runs up the center of the carb body and protrudes into the throat between the choke and throttle plates? Can that te removed? If so, please let me know how to do it for future reference.
Do you guys think that 87 octane works ok w/ these older engines, or is mid-grade or premium recommended? Thanks a lot and Happy 2009.