OK, to whom it may concern. I think I now have gotten to the bottom of this as far as my mule is concerned. I am now chalking this up to a maintenance issue. I got brave and tore into the carbuerator. I think this is just a bit past the edge of my comfort zone. However, I removed it and during inspection found that there was some fine silty sludge in the bowl. I believe this was causing the bowl valve to stay open or seep. I cleaned this out and removed the pin holding the float and removed the plunger (?). Anyway, it looked fine and I cleaned the carb all out with carb cleaner and reassembled. My new attitude about this is that when I change the oil, I think I'll remove the bowl and clean it out.
Next, a quick return to the fuel pump. The contacts look pretty worn, but I think I'll replace it if I start having another problem or it gives out or if someone else posts some good advise, etc. I did do a quick internet search and found a replacement oem for @$125. So at least it's down from @$200 I saw in an earlier post.
Next, I want to address the air cleaner. When I had this gas in the oil outbreak, I found that the gas had also run down the air supply tube from the carb to the air cleaner under the seat and pretty well fouled it out. I think the downhill direction of the pipe from the carb to the air cleaner is a bad design. I took the liberty of replacing that pipe with a new pipe I built from pvc. It now runs fairly straight dowhill from the carb (lower than the air cleaner) and then hits a "t" junction and back uphill to the air cleaner. I then continue on down from the "t" about 4-5 more inches and put a screw cap on the end. So, now I have constructed a resevoir to catch the gas in that can easily be drained out by removing the screw cap and replacing. I wondered if there would be any affect on power with the extra distance of pvc, but it's not much and I used 1" pvc which is the same size as the original tube. I'm interested if anyone has an opinion of this.
On my test run, it ran perfectly. Plenty of power and no hiccups, etc. We'll see.............