Carburetor(I think) question, I haven't seen asked

I was wondering if anyone can help with this problem I am having. It has to do with my 81 550 Maxim idling. I have had to clean the carbs three or four times in the past because I let the bike sit around too long. Each time I did that, the bike ran fine when I put the carbs back together. This time though, I have been having some pretty major problems. Actually, I am down to one problem. After a few minutes of riding, or just running the bike after a "choke session", it will seem to idle fine then will slowly begin to idle lower and lower on its own. In other words, it will idle at 11 to 1200 then it will slowly idle down to about 900 and die.

At first I thought I had narrowed the problem down to the #2 float getting stuck in the open position and allowing too much fuel into that cylinder, and bogging the whole engine down because of that cylinder. But I finally got that fixed by polishing the hell out of that float needle seat. So it no longer leaks fuel, but the engine still starts bogging down little by little until it dies. I have tried bumping up the idle adjustment and that works for a little while, then it just starts revving excessively when I try to ride it. I can leave it in gear and the engine is just coasting me down the road at about 4K on the tach without me giving it any throttle. I turn the idle adjustment back down and it runs fine again for a little while, then it starts creeping lower again. At that point, I have to keep revving the bike at stops so it won't die.

Any thoughts? Thanks.

 

You were on the right track with a flooding carb being the problem. If all floats are seating properly make sure the float level is not too high and that the choke is closing as it should. It sounds like flooding and those are the two most likely causes.