I just got my first moped recently, a 1980 QT50 in pretty good shape. She has been running well for the past few months until recently. The other day, I stalled at a stoplight and immediately pulled over and noticed gas freely flowing out of the small hose at the bottom of the carburetor bowl. I shut off the fuel petcock to stop the flow and walked her home.
After some searching online (I'm new to this stuff) I concluded that it would be a good idea to just pop the carb off and give it a good clean. After cleaning, I put the carb back on and the gas leaking appeared to be fixed. WHen I went to start her up, though, I couldn't get her going unless I had the choke on all the way and then it would actually be revving instead of idling. If I shut off the choke, she would die instantly and wouldn't start back up unless choked.
I tried just about every adjustment I could with the idle adjuster screw, cable adjuster for the throttle valve, and different settings on the jet needle inside the throttle valve, but nothing changed and she would only start choked and never idle.
Finally, I decided just for the hell of it (and also because I don't really know exactly what I'm doing) to take the jet needle (#18 in the attached diagram) completely out and try starting her. And she started right up and idled beautifully. I rode her around for a couple of minutes and she seemed to run great.
Can you guys help me figure out what is happening and how I can get her running with the jet needle still in? I'm pretty baffled and not sure if driving around without the needle will hurt anything.
Attached is the diagram of the carb out of the manual if you aren't familiar with this particular carb. I used it as a guide to make sure everything was pit back together correctly.
Thanks guys!