My motor had ran really well for about an hour or two, until I decided to fine tune the carbs. Could just be coincidence, but it started acting up immediately after I made some adjustments. I had made this adjustment in a bucket, out of the water, but the instructions say to do it in gear, on the water. The needles were put back into the exact same position as before, FWIW, so everything should have been where it was when it was running well. It was running rough, was hard to keep idling, had to crank the idle bolt all the way down to keep the carbs cracked open enough that it wouldn't die. There was also noticeable unburned fuel I could see shimmering in the water, and a slight bit more smoke from the exhaust. I tried turning the needles a bit one way, then the other, but didn't seem to make any difference. At home, I did the cylinder drop test, but it was hard to note any change while shutting off to ground each wire (CDI ignition). I did another test by having all wires plugged in, and leaving the motor just barely idling, not touching the throttle lever at all during this test. I then would shut off, pull one plug, turn back on, and doing so on every cylinder, it would not even come close to starting. Plug them all back in, and it would start and idle. I also used a spark tester with a gap and verified a strong spark on all cylinders. Plugs are almost brand new and looked fine when I pulled them. I'm guessing the next thing I should look into is the carbs? What should I try next?
