Potential Carb / Valve Issue - Please Help - See Video

[rjmc]

I started having an issue last fall that has gotten worse. The first symptom was the engine losing power if I opened the throttle too much at high RPMs on the Highway. It continued to get worse, so I took the carburetors off, disassembled and cleaned them. I didn't have an air compressor to blow them out, but I removed all the jets and was able to get a good stream of carb cleaner to shoot through all the jets and ports. When I reinstalled the carbs the problem was worse, and most recently the bike wouldn't start.

I thought maybe the in-line filter was the clogged so I replaced that. But it appears even with the new filter there are issues. After it not starting I drained some fuel from each of the carb bowls and eventually I got it started. However, the engine wants to die as soon as I try to open the throttle, or put the choke off.

Two 1 minute videos are here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTHIsA4JVBo & https://youtu.be/2nSrSFkotJ4. In the first I put my hand over the air-intake. At no point am I manipulating the throttle or choke. The second shows how sensitive the engine is to the throttle and choke.

I'm assuming the engine's not getting enough fuel into the fuel/air mixture, but seeing as how I've already taken the carbs off the bike and tried to clean them, I'm not sure what my next step is. Any help on pin-pointing the source of the problem is greatly appreciated.

[92xjunker]

Carbs are still dirty, mainly the pilot circuit. Canned carb cleaner isn't going to work. They need to soak in carb dip for 24hrs the you can flush with carb cleaner and compressed air. No compressor? They sell canned air at office stores to clean keyboards.

[arsenic]

There is a lot more to cleaning carbs than just the jets. I've seen bikes time and time again not idle with perfectly clean pilot jets.

[MotorBikeMike]

Stupid question here, but what is your Petcock valve set too?

[rjmc]

Petcock was likely on prime the whole time. I was able to watch gas flowing into in-line fuel filter, so I'm pretty confident fuel from tank to carb bowls isn't the issue (if that's where you question was pointed at).

I'm surprised that the canned air would have enough force to be used to blow jets out.

Thanks for the responses. Not sure if I should just bite the bullet and throw down $400 at the mechanic or not at this point (not a whole lot of free time these days). Over email he suggested it was either carbs or maybe one of the in-take valves was too tight. Any thoughts on that?

[92xjunker]

Carbs..... Easy, check the valve gaps.