Too late! I chew tobacco and spit all kinds of nasty stuff in there from across the shop.That's an anti spit cup. So don't spit in it,(protects the filter) but you would have to pull the the 2 10MM nuts and 2 8MM headed machine screws (most have) to remove the tin. Then you will see the bowl. It isn't horribly abnormal to see a touch of residual fuel in these, but it shouldn't build or continue to run out. Most carbs will slide off when you undo the fuel line, solenoid wire connector- but carefully unhook the linkages via the plastic clips and watch over them or they will be gone. Remember that breather hose on reinstallation.
Ha, ha... not really. If anyone wants to hear a spittoon joke from the Old West say so and I'll post it in this thread. Too much wrench turning makes Rhino a dull boy!
All you said was validated today - we took it down...except we balked at pulling off the carburetor. We disconnected the choke cable and sent some oil up the cable from that end. It had a slight bend - not quite a kink - and because the inner wire inside the flexible metal sleeve is a wire...I gently bent it more straight. We rerouted it to have a gentler curve into the lever. All in all the choke assembly seemed to behave (mostly, once it misbehaved early in the process). I'm calling that one a win - for now. It could use a new cable, but I haven't tried to locate one just yet.
My neighbor buddy who is helping had some SeaFoam so we poured that can in on top of about 1.5 gallons in the tank. We ran the engine and it started doing something new. Before it had run smoothly at full throttle. Today it began oscillating in RPM at full throttle. Very rhythymically. Backing off from full throttle it slowed the regularity. So, definitely related to fuel flow, right? He had a can of "AutoZone Carb Clean" and since we had the air filter off he started spraying that into the carburetor. SeaFoam and Carb Clean - gotta work! When he sprayed that stuff in the oscillating engine RPM smoothed out briefly. But it didn't rectify the issue.
Now, friends, I do not consider myself much of a mechanic. But I do think I realized something insightful. I asked him to stop with the Carb Clean, and I slowly pulled out the choke knob a small distance. As I did this the engine stopped oscillating and seemed to run at strong RPM, which makes me think the mixture is too lean. I was richening the air/fuel mixture by pulling the choke, right?
So the manual on pages 27 and 28 says to adjust the carburetor and richen the mixture turn "the adjusting needles out - counterclockwise). And that is all, folks. Where are these needles? No picture, nothing more. It says to make final adjustments with a warm engine running. It's off to YouTube in search of a video that will specifically tell me how to do this. IF I'm on the right track.
Oh, yes...you will love this. Along the way I saw more evidence of mouse infestation. We'd already removed a LOT from outside the engine with a shop vac and air compressor - this is mostly old carpet she also kept near the mower. My mother in law had kept her mower in an old wooden barn these last seven winters. She thought the shop that worked on her mower in the fall of 2020 had taken care of this - she had asked them to look for and remove mice evidence. They really ripped her off, which sadly happens to lots of elderly women in our marvelous modern world of "if you aren't cheating you're the sucker". But I digress. I shouldn't paint with broad brushes, but she sure seems to run into problems. Check out these photos - and the earlier thread comments about the fuel solenoid maybe acting up when getting overheated comes to mind. At least her engine fins are clean now.