So, I took the rest of the day off to work on the carb. First, I decided to take the whole thing out. I was careful with the gasket and lifted it just slightly to see if it was sticking to the carb or adapter.

After that, it was on the table
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Taking the top of the carb was pretty straight forward. Just took out the 5 screws on top and it was off. Again, I was careful with the gasket and made sure the float was not hitting anything as I lifted the top. I verified the factory setting and it was 1.5 inches from the gasket to the bottom of the float.

Took out the float and bent the part that was touching the valve. I adjusted the float height by 1/8 of an inch.
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I decided to also check a small water leak I noticed. During the install, I was suspicious of one of the flat head screws was a bit shallow. IMG_20120913_155237.jpg

I screwed in the flat heads by hand and it turns out the one on the left wasn't settling in all the way. Just cleaned the hole and it was good.

I put everything back together and used anti-seize lubricant when setting back the gaskets. I placed a very very very very thin layer with cotton buds.

Engine start was just as fast as before. Right off, I noticed that there was less smoke during the start and that awful gas smell was completely gone. After warmup, adjusted the idle screw a little. Reved it a couple of times and there was no hesitation. The short road test was also good.

Hopefully I can get a good computation on the fuel economy over the weekend so I will know if there are any changes.