It has a choke. It looks like what I have. The large plastic part on the left is external to the carb. The long end of the spring connects to a notch at the bottom of the wide end. You can see a little protrusion there. It's a notch in the plastic. The coil end of the spring connects to the control brackets right above the carb. That's where I took the spring off of.The choke plate is not shown in the picture. It attaches to the choke shaft. The choke on the mower is free to move without the spring. Not binding at all. I'll know more by Thursday. Thanks for the help.
Thanks for the videos they were interesting. I should get the new choke return spring today and I'll take a look to see if it needs additional cleaning but it was power washed last week after the oil and fuel were drained out. I'll see if I can get a good picture after I get the spring installed.
Good morning. I'm happy to report that I installed the new choke return spring and adjusted the throttle cable and the choke closes normally when the start lever is in the choke position. Comparing the old spring to the replacement it was obvious the old spring had lost its tension and the part of the upper coil was binding on the choke shaft extension where the straight part of the spring connects to. The machine now starts on the second pull. I have to say that it's not a real high-tech solution for John Deere to close the choke but it was 1993.