Curious 420 choke problem

[ggfossen]

Near the end of the day, and after a day of good running, the 420 started making very strange internal noises. Not clunks, but more like a rapid succession of "tinks."

I shut it down immediately, and cursed and pondered a bit. I noticed the choke was sort of jammed. I pulled the intake hose, and found the little flapper, that is attached to the choke, laying akimbo in the the intake openning. I pulled it out, and found that one of the mounting ears was missing. Apparently, it found it's way into the engine via the intake valves, and probably jumped around doing strange things.

Not knowing for sure what had happened, I pulled the head where it sat. Not a good place to work, but.... I did find a small piece of metal, that appeared to be the mounting ear, on top of one of the cylinders.

I removed it, checked all the valves, and put it back together. Darkness was approaching, and rain clouds were threatening, so I did hurry a bit.

I fired it up, and it ran well...all the way to the shed

So...can anyone tell me if that little flapper on the choke is important enough to replace, or may I simply ignore it?

Gary