Hello to all again, and a special thanks to Addict for all of the help figuring out the regulator problem. So the dog was ridden for about an hour did fine, then cut off and would not restart, thought needle valve was sticking in carb so ordered a kit, installed kit, seemed to run fine around the yard. Then while idling the idle shot up like it was getting gas from somewhere, surged somewhat, would sometimes idle back to normal and then back to a really high idle, it carried itself back in the garage more than once! So took carb back apart, readjusted float, no change in performance. It will start and idle fine for a few minutes than starts the fast idle once it gets a little heat going. When I drive it wide open it feels strong but after staying wide open for more than a few yards, when letting off the gas the motor will start to bog and then lazily lope, more gas pedal will just kill it most of the time. Sometimes, I can cut the kill switch, immediately turn back on and it will fire right back up and take off like a banshee. Because of that last part, I'm thinking electrical?? Choke is hooked up but not sure what its doing. Thanks in advance for any suggestions, getting frustrated with this one.

Make sure ur filters clean and no air leaks around the carb.... get a new plug and do a wot test and look at ur plug. Let ur motor cool before removing the plug. And will go from there.

After doing what I mentioned above and there's no change then you may need to adjust ur valves.

Thanks Miamieddie. Some history on the dog - it sat for a couple of years with a broke plug wire before I got it, the breather tube was missing so I bought a new air breather assembly, new gas tank, and new intake manifold. Pulled the plug and it looks like a new plug. I'm fairly certain the valves were never adjusted by the previous owner but I could be wrong, I read a lot of post on here discussing how the valve maintenance MUST be done. I'm thinking head in that direction as well, any savvy advice would be appreciated. I have a fairly good working mechanical ability, mostly on cars and boats though. Thanks!

I think you are starving for fuel

I put in inline fuel filter between the tank and the carb, but didnt see where that would cause a problem but maybe..? The original needle valve was sticking so I thought that the rebuild would have solved it there was no metal clip on the original but the kit came with one. The surging at idle though leads me to think its in another direction...? It will run for sometimes 4 or 5 minutes at idle and than start idling really high. Yesterday I went to start it and it takes a lot of turning over and playing with the pedal to get going. It seems to do that a lot lately where before it started on a dime. Thanks for any advice!
Sean

to me it sounds like you have a intake leak.i think its like 3 to 5 minute before choke shuts off extra gas. then after it shut the gas off if intake is leaking pulling air in making it run lean
hard start is one problem notice with intake leak, bogging stalling coming back idle, then just a crazy idle.
that's what is sounds to me may be wrong. I went through 4 of the rubber intakes they about caused me to pull my hair out.