On Thu, 8 Jun 2017 06:06:00 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

What do you think of bypassing it? And thinking back the thing backfired once, scared the **** outta me lol
Possible it went bad? Going to start taking it apart to clean carb and needle, if its got one?

Have you checked for tightness the carb to manifold mounting bolts?
The problem you describe sounds like a vacuum leak. Checking the
tightness of the mounting bolts is cheap and easy.