I pulled the choke to on cold start let it idle for a min or 2 as I pushed the choke back in there was a metal grinding noise which almost sounded like grinding gears. She stalled & wouldn't start again. Any ideas as to what happened?

 

I can only think of 1 scenario : Something inside the carburetor let go and went into the motor. I really don't think so, just a coincidence, but you'll have to eliminate what it isn't first. Is compression ok? Whatever made that sound, is probably bad, though. You could bore scope inside the cylinder to eliminate the first scenario.

 

Can you pull the recoil starter ok? If so hopefully not in the engine but could be the bendix throwing a spring or weights. Pull the recoil cover off first to see it any damage there. If the bendix is ok,can kick out and in manually plus you can turn the flywheel ok,it may be internal.Depending on what year model you have,some of the older models could throw flywheel magnets also and screw up stators.