Any ideas before carb rebuild?

Hey guys, So I have my bike assembled enough to ride it. Id like to do that before I do the winter tear down and final assembly.

I can get it started...When the engine is cold, I can get it just about idling, it struggles and I have to keep the throttle on full. After a minute or so of that, most of the time it will kick loose and rev up to 7k...which is when I back off the gas.

Then I throttle down and adjust the plastic idle screw to get idles around 1200 rpm. I rev it up and it will idle around 3k for a moment before going back down. If I adjust the plastic idle screw while its at 3k, it will idle down eventually and stall.

Then after all that, it barely starts and then I have to keep the throttle pinned just to get it to kick over and struggle again..

I have original filters on and the exhaust is open. I know the exhaust plays a factor, but I should still be able to take it for a gentle ride around the block. Ive had the small brass idle screws set at 3 turns out and 1 turn out and it didnt seem to make a difference. It seems like its either flooding or starving. Floats and needles operate fine and are adjusted properly.

Thanks for any suggestions

First...did you clean the carbs...?

Yes, carbs were gummy. The second carb wasn't getting enough fuel and the inlet nipple was also gummed. One carb also had a missing jet, the #25 jet that screws into the fuel bowl on the inside. Cleaned the seat and needles along with the small screen filters and set float height. I made sure everything flowed and worked as needed and sealed.

Does the battery have to be fully charged to get a spark? Is it possible the Engine can still kick over but not have enough juice to produce a spark?

Ok I'm just gonna strip the carbs down really good one more time and make sure all of the seals are still intact and proper.

Well I found out that one of the carbs was flooding.. Its scary when the engine is steaming hot and you see fuel pouring out of the carb onto the engine..
The float heights were out of whack, probably due to the springs in the needles being too soft. I only had one rebuild kit at hand so I changed it over.

The needles didnt look as bad as Ive seen before(in other engines) but there is a slight ring on both of them.

I ordered a second rebuild kit along with some ignition stuff. New wires and boots.

I should also note that Ive been using one of my car batteries to get the bike started. The battery is a couple years old and only seems to hold 12.9 volts... It still starts my car which is a Mk1 VW with a 16v engine, known for being EXTREMELY finicky with voltage and ignition stuff.

Update: I partially rebuilt the carbs with the Keyster kits and made sure everything worked and was clean.

I didnt notice that the plug wires were glued into the coils, so I set the new wires aside and just installed the new boots. The old boots had a real sloppy fit over the plugs and I was suspecting arcing and weak spark and also they were rusty inside.

Put an inline fuel filter on as well and got every put back together. I fired it up and it STILL wasnt idling. It would rev up but struggled to idle and hovered around 3k before dropping off completely...

I was working in 40 degrees windy and rainy with daylight running out.. I was getting myself sick and impatient..

So I thought id check the points gaps. They were out, I adjusted that and the bike had better throttle response but still stalled.

Then I saw another recent thread/video here about setting the static timing with the gater clip and a light with a ground wire... I knew my bike needed to be timed, but I was waiting for the timing lightgun to get it right on point....

I happen to have a test light with a gater clip wire and it has a fuse with a pointed lead on it, like this:

My timing was off by a mile, It was firing ATDC.

I set it and bolted everything up and the bike ran perfectly, I was able to take it for a ride and get a feel for it. Still some kinks to work out but it ran and Im very excited for the future with my bike. I have a video of it idling but I will start another thread for the with whatever pics I have.
Thanks for all the help guys.

Woohoo! Nice job. I'm going after electrical gremlins myself.