1984 Kdx 200 Carburetor/Petcock issues

[linny]

Hey All,
So I thought with a good cleaning of the jets I would have solved the issues with my KDX. It seems it has not....
It seems that the valve in the petcock of the fuel tank has gone bad. In the off position it still is dripping fuel, wouldn't be surprised at the bike's age. But the other interesting issue that it has is that it has a hard time starting when its cold. The bike does have a fuel filter in the line and I am wondering if that's what is causing the issue. Anyways, the bike has a 34mm bore Mikuni carburetor and was thinking on replacing the whole unit. (For the price of piecing together rebuild kits I can buy a brand new carb). Has anyone ever run a 34mm Mikuni VM Round slide carb on their bikes? That's the one I am leaning towards. Anyways, would appreciate the input. Thanks,
-Linny
Edit: Did some reading on the forum and the KXT 250 used the same petcock as the 1984 KDX 200? Anyone that can verify this? Thanks.

[tymes]

You can get a kit for the petcock off ebay. If its not starting cold maybe due to high fuel level in the carb or the crank case filling with fuel if the petcock is still dripping and maybe the needle and seat leaking slowly in the carb, they are getting on. I would be inclined to strip the carb down for a good clean and blow out and check the float heights. The issue with the carbs on these old girls is no air screw so its jet changing time to tune the idle circuit. But once tuned they run pretty sweet, its just a two stroke thing, they are all about getting the mixture right all the way through and knowing when to tweek it for weather and altitude.