Okay, I made a tweak to the spring rather than bend the bracket, just to see if I was on track with the repair. I started the mower and it idled faster than before, but not at its full operating speed. I ordered a new spring a couple days ago and it will be here tomorrow. My thoughts are that the new spring will be the proper tension and the mower will run at its normal speed again.
I'll post again after I install the new spring.
The bracket you mentioned does not appear to have been bent (the arm is perpendicular to the main body of it. The spring also looks 'normal'. I'll be taking a closer look at it today so I'll let you know what I find.
Thanks again for your help and input! :)
Thanks for your quick response Eugene! One thing I forgot to mention is that I can manually bring the engine up to speed, it just won't do it on its own. The 3 springs I found seem to be in place, see the attached photo. They look normal to me, and all are connected. Which one is the governor control spring?
-Jim
I had the same problem with my ST 230P, except that only one side worked. I found a loose wire connection behind the light assembly. Check your wires, push the plug ends in to be sure the connection is tight. That should do it. The lights are LED so theres no bulb to replace. It either works or it doesn't.