I put the stock can on tonight so there's no escaping exhaust gases coming out of the connection now.

I also had a few mins to see if I could get it to idle.  After backing the air screw waaaay out it started to idle along OK.  **This is still with just the cone filter off the back of the carb

Engaging the choke seems to kill it most times - not sure if that's normal or an indication of anything.

I haven't adjusted the jet needle yet per the recommendation above but may have time tomorrow to do it. 

The clutch is still locked up but I tried to run through 1st and 2nd going down my driveway.  For some reason, whenever it gets under load it wants to bog right down and stall.  Rolling down the hill and giving it 1/4 throttle it'll start revving up and picking up enough speed so I can shift into 2nd.  I shift back down into first (no clutch during any shift) and the minute I hit an incline the motor will make a "baaaaaawwwww" sound and die.  Since I don't know 2-strokes very well the best thing I can relate it to is the sound a chainsaw makes when it gets bound up in a tree. 


I should have time to pull the clutch tomorrow after work.  I'll probably just swap in the spare that I have for the time being so I can continue to test.  It's possible that I can get some video of it running too to give a better idea of what's up. 

I'm gonna need a bunch of misc spare parts - random bolts, etc so if someone has a bunch of stuff kicking around along w/an airbox hit me up via PM and lets chat.  I've got a bunch of spare stuff too if anybody is interested in trading anything.