1981 550 stalling, missing @ low rpm

[ratchetneck1]

My 81 550t started acting up on the way home today. First traffic light I had to stop for the idle came down to almost a stall then recovered to about 1500 rpm then continued to float around. On the hiway it was fine , plenty of power and ran normal.After downshifting and slowing down i started to get a miss in most gears at low rpms. It almost felt like it wasnt getting fuel until i got on the throttle and reached around 2500 rpm.Anything under this and the bike would misfire/ skip that you could hear thru the exhaust as well as feel. Upon coasting into the garage with the clutch pulled in the bike just stalled.I tried to restrt and it immediately stalled again.I let the bike sit for a few hours and went and checked the gas level etc.The bike started up and idled for about 20 seconds or so then the idle slowly lowered until it stalled out.If you bring the bike up off idle it will run but you can hear the miss in the exhaust.I manually turned up the idle speed with the adjustment knob and it idled up around 2500 then eraticly dropped to almost a stall then back up a little for a few seconds then stalled.I pulled the plugs and they all looked good.Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks,
mike

[duaneage]

Are you flooding any of the carbs? Might be dirt under a float needle. If you put the bike on the center stand and shut the engine off, does fuel come into the airbox when you move the petcock valve from ON to PRI? THis would indicate a float sticking open and you'll have to clean out the needle valves either with carb spray or a teardown.

[chef1366]

Try running the petcock on prime.

[ratchetneck1]

After thinking about this ( most of the nite) i was thinking along the same lines.I didnt see any raw fuel coming out anywhere but thinking to begin with the petcock.Doesnt this run off of vacuum on a diaphram when in run position and bypass this in prime ? Also in prime, if a float was stuck open i would get raw fuel coming out.I will try this tonite. The rubber boots that connect the airbox to the individual carbs on the center two carbs are not sealing correctly, when the clamps are tightened up it squeezes the rubber off the carb ( there is only a very small lip) allowing some unfilterd air to enter the carbs.I know this is something i need to address but i dont think this would really relate to the stalling.???
mike