I bought a used 5500kw generator with a 11hp Honda motor. It sat for a
while and lots of stuff was rusted. I cleaned everything out including
the tank, gas hoses, and carb. It ran though very rough with black
smoke out the engine (sounded too rich). Also the rod that connected
to the governor was not able to adjust.

I took apart the carb and found the governor shaft and attached plate
totally seized in the wide open position. I tried everything to loosen,
but no luck. I eventually broke out the shaft but the plate too was
destroyed.

My question - how tight is the plate supposed to be against the walls
of the carb? I did a cheap repair. I modified a door hinge pin to act
as a shaft, drilled a hole into the side of it and grinded a quarter
down so it fit the walls of the carb. I then drilled a hole through
the quarter and screwed it to my home made shaft. It runs! and runs
way better than before. It is smooth though the idle is about 5000rpm
when the governor is in the fully closed position. Note that I grinded
the quarter so there is about a 1mm gap around all walls of the carb -
is this my problem. The other issue is when I open the governor, the
engine actually slows down and starts to blow black smoke out the
exhaust - I think this is due to too much air. So again, how tight is
the plate supposed to fit against the walls.

Also, the cab's main bolt that holds the float bowl to the carb broke.
This bolt had a hole drilled up the length of the bolt and two holes
drilled across. It also had a probe attached to the bottom of the bolt
- what is this probe for - could it be the "auto idle" feature? I
couldn't find a replacement, so I simply removed the broken bolt and
used a clamp to hold the float bowl against the carb. It worked fine
and no leaks. Could this cause me the high idle or smoking when
increasing idle. Could the carb now be getting too much fuel into the
engine since the bolt housing now has no bolt thus perhaps allowing for
more fuel entry (note that I don't think so since the top of the bolt
housing still has only a small opening into the flow area of the carb,
so it shouldn't matter - right?).

Thanks for all input.