Got the water pump replaced successfully. Then went on to trying to get the idle fixed. Again. This carter clone is very prone to plugging up the idle circuit if it sits for awhile. I hadn't been able to dial in the idle since it sat for 2 months this summer. It would seem to be idling fine then it would die at stop signs. I was spraying carb cleaner into the idle mix screw holes but to no avail. Usually this has fixed it in the past. So this morning I decided to take it off and take it apart to clean it. Worked great. Set the idle in about 5 minutes and it was doing great.
I had a leak inside the radiator in the trans cooler (now plugged and using an external cooler) last winter. I hadn't done a flush to clean out all the gunk and some rust. I had been running some flush juice in the radiator for a couple of days so after I got the idle fixed up I started draining and flushing. I was about done when I noticed that water was coming out over the radiator face. Turn out the front side of the upper tank was leaking. I pulled it to get a better look and could see that there was a 4" line of corrosion right where the tank meets the core. Sigh.
Tomorrow I may clean it up and see if I can just solder it up. Otherwise I'm looking at this as a replacement. I don't need aluminum but it's by far cheaper than any copper unit I can find. The seller's reviews look pretty good and legit.