Well, I must be bound and determined to fix this thing - must be the engineer in me that won't let it go. I've figured out how the governor blade-link pin-throttle-spring are assembled. My problem before was that the throttle was on the wrong side of the stop. However, it still won't start. The only thing I can see that's wrong is that I don't have the governor-idle spring attached (it's busted.) Would this prevent the engine from starting?

Hi Seil, Thank you for the kind words of support. I am happy that they went to a wonderful home. They are in a new climate zone and state now. :) I hope they do well there. Reem

The only difference I can see with older wood flooring is that a lot of it seems to be clear or high grade and thus it was likely cut from the outer portion of a tree as opposed to the center. Wood from the center of a tree is called juvenile wood and is formed during the first 5-25 years of growth. It tends to have less dimensional stability and lower density (contrary to Lowe's "center cut is better" lumber ads). So it quite possible with some of today's flooring (especially strip) that you are seeing softer juvenile wood from the center of the tree. That said, many hardwood sawmills do not cut the center of a tree for any grade lumber and instead utilize it for pallet cants or railroad ties. Softwood sawmills cut studs right down to the pith, much to the dismay of today's framing carpenter. Commercial sawmills sell the higher grades of lumber (FAS, #1 Common) to cabinet plants and distribution yards while the lower grades (#2, #3) go to the large commercial flooring plants. Through optimization, the flooring plants can make select or #1 Common grades of 2" wide flooring from low grade lumber. What I posted earlier about density is true if one is comparing apples to apples. A tight growth-ring piece of oak lumber from the non-juvenile portion of a 150 year old tree has LOWER density than a second growth piece of similar lumber from a 70 year old oak tree. The explanation is simple. Slower growth results in a higher proportion of lower density earlywood cells (the annual rings you see). With faster growth, you get more thick walled latewood cells and the same amount of earlywood cells which remains constant. For anyone interested in learning about wood and wood properties, there are plenty of good resources available. My source is "Forest Products and Wood Science" by John Haygreen and Jim Bowyer.

Is this the ONLY issue? Or is he struggling in other areas also? There are some kids whose physical threshholds are set differently from the norm. In other words, something that is just strong enough to register with them might be painful for another child -- so your son might not realize he's hurting another child. Is he under-sensitive in other ways as well? Like to temperature? Strong or spicy flavors? Is it only physical roughness? Does he have a problem with empathy? Or is it emotional damage, like teasing and taunting also? Is he deliberately hurtful? Or does it appear more accidental? Does he have trouble understanding verbal or non-verbal cues from the other kids that it's time to stop? Does he seem to understand other social cues? (boredom, discomfort, etc.) Is it possible DS wants the other kids to go away and give him more space? Or is he sad when it happens? Is he surprised? I guess what I'm trying to say is that you need to understand why he does it so you can find a way to change his behavior. One tactic you might try is called Applied Behavior Analysis. (It's used a lot in families with autistic children, whose behavior is less predictable using conventional rules. You have to try to understand the world from their viewpoints, because it isn't like ours...) Try to be very aware when he's around other children in situations where this might happen. You want to be able to write down what was happening before he acted out (very specifically), exactly what he did, then what happened afterward (who did what) and how he responded next. After recording a few of these incidents, try to see what the common threads are.