John Deere 60 lever shaft in governor

Hello all ,
I have a John Deere 60 and the governor is really slow to pick up. The tractor will just about die if it gets any load and is close to an idle. I have rebuilt the Carb and linkage on the carb is free. The issue I think is the ?Lever Saft?, well that is what they call it in the manual. This is the shaft that leaf spring and arm that runs the link to the Carbare connected too. I unhooked the carb and the throttle lever. After disconnecting I can push on the leaf spring and it takes a ton of deflection before I get any movement of the governor arm. I don?t know how ?smooth? this should be... the tractor sat out for years and I think I have some binding (rust tight) . Should this be smoothwith everything disconnected? Anyone know how much the leaf spring should defect before the governor should try to move the carb linkage? I really don?t want to dig into this if it should be that stiff. Looks like I can pop the tank off , remove the distributor, open the back side of the governor and take that shaft out. But that looks like the better part of the day wrenching. My old Farmall I can be in the govener in under 5 min
Thank you in advance,
Brian

Unless the "shaft" you are worrying about is grossly stuck or sticky, the odds are a million to one that what you perceive as the problem is elsewhere, IMHO.

With the engine not running the shaft should move freely. In order to get the shaft out you need to pull the governor housing off the tractor. Pull the lever oil around where it goes into the governor pull the lever up and down and rotate it hopefully the oil will work it's way down and free things up.