End of last season, in the cold, I pulled the carbs and drained the bowls with the intention of going through the carbs. Well winter passed and I only managed to open up the float bowls and clean out some powdery rust colored stuff. I threw the carbs back on and fired up the bike which at first didn't run so great but now it seems to run like it did at the end of last season, when cold. Specifically it idles at 1,150 rpm after getting off the choke and the revs blip up and drop down without hesitation (no-load) just like they used to. Once the bike warms up the idle automatically starts going up as the engine gets warmer all the way to 1,800-2,000 area from what I've seen, and the rpms on no-load rev up seems to drop slower than when cold. That last part, from what I read somewhere here or on the internet so it may be wrong, leads me to think it's getting lean when hot. I pulled the "new this season" (about 20 miles put on them) plugs and they all have some amount of carbon build-up on the threaded part with the insulators still looking new with #3 just looking terrible with carbon on the insulator--this makes me think the mixture is slightly rich although I suppose the lean condition could be cleaning the plugs maybe.
I don't know where to go from here because I don't have the infamous intake o-rings on my bike just the carb boots. Regarding them, when I removed them over the winter I did bend some of the clamps trying to get the boots off but I bent them back to as round as I could before I reinstalled them. Just yesterday I noticed some liquid leaking from one of the boots (I dunno if it's the source of my lean when warm issue as I dunno if liquid can leak out while air leaks in). So I pulled the carbs and found some liquid on the inside of all the boots, is this normal? Do the clamps have to be perfect flawless round to seal?
I dunno what to make of this because season before last all I did was drain the bowls and the bike faired good. This season I changed plugs, kept the empty carbs inside, cleaned the bowls, and it's acting worse than when I neglected it.
Sorry for the long post but I know "my bike doesn't run right" isn't descriptive enough for any good answers.
P.S. my tank has some (3) dents from falling off the bench and the PO and I know not to drill or weld gas tanks without proper skill/training/equipment so does anyone know where I can get this fixed for not a yacht load of money in the SE michigan area? I don't need the tank painted or anything just banged/pulled out and made as smooth as possible.
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