Well, finally some good news to report! I took the carbs (80's technology lol) off again. Did the same routine as before with carb cleaner, compressed air and using a wire to make sure passages were not blocked. I did not completely soak the carbs, however I filled the holes where the needles seat and the holes on the other side with carb cleaner and tilted the carbs so that would soak in overnight. Before that, at one point I was poking my wire and felt some resistance, which cleared. So I don't know exactly what the smoking gun was. The bottom carb seemed to be the culprit as it did look dirtier than the other two - cleaned them all the same nonetheless. My guess is gravity and the fact that more gas sits in the bottom carb. I drained out the carb cleaner and blew out the rest with compressed air. Put em back together and fired it up on the hose. 1st I notice it is idling WAY too high. Like 1800 rpms or something like that. Hmmm. Adjusted the throttle arm and still 1200 rpm and running a bit rough similar to before. So I backed out the carb adjustment screw quarter turn - improvement. Another quarter turn and she's at 700 rpms, no coughing/sneezing, and no cutting off.
I think after the carbs were cleaned it was idling too high because when carbs were dirty I had increased idle because it was too low.
So next will be to drop it in the lake and put it through its paces. Thanks to Ferm for making me take it apart again! I am cautiously optimistic
