It's amazing what happens when you replace the right part. After replacing the stator it fired up on the third pull. A little bit of time setting up the carbs, and everything seems to be working fine. I haven't had it out on the snow yet, but I'm looking forward to it sometime next week.
Hay plattler thats great! It always feels good to get a problem solved and hear them run. You are lucky to have some snow ,it is so warm here that we are running around in t-shirts here in N.Y. hope to get snow soon.