Made some progress finally. Yes, adjusting the actuator linkage rod did the trick. It can start now with a few tries, and can step up to full load fine. Each 25% increment I can hear the RPM stepping up a bit. I had to adjust the top bolt out a bit more to get the governor controller, actuator and throttle to line up at full load and steady out. (Good tips from
@CallMeColt 's videos).
The actuator linkage rod is extended to almost full length. The idle gap to the magnet is still less than 5/16" - still working on that. One other observation - when stepping down off the load in 25% increments, it's having a problem going from 50% to 25% - it stumbles and shuts down most every time.
Still some tweaking to do, but making good progress.