u/Ghastly-Rubberfat

I never saw anything like this when I googled my problem so I thought I’d post up.

I just bought a 1997 BMW F650 (the cheapest bike on Craigslist). It seemed like a great deal and ran well, obviously needed a few things done to it. Took it out for a first ride after some rain. It ran like a dream for the first 30 miles, met my buddy at a gas station and filled up with premium, then 10 miles down the road it sputters and stalls. Trailered it home (a horrible ordeal) and cleaned the carb, reinstalled and it still ran rough and sputtered. I put in new plugs and went to add Seafoam out of desperation. When I opened the tank there was water pooled around the gas cap, which just drained right into the tank! WTF? Did some research, need to unplug the drain tube, drained the gas from the tank from the reserve port, drained the carb bowls, now all is well. I hope.

Edit: I was adding some Seafoam this afternoon. We had gotten some rain and when I opened the gas cap and there was rain water collected around the tank opening which promptly ran into the tank. There is supposed to be a drain around there that must be plugged. I drained the tank and carb bowls and she came back to life

1997 BMW F650. Bike ran normal when I bought it, for 60 miles. Then it coughed and sputtered and stalled. It was leaking gas and I think running very rich, oil in the exhaust pipe. I pulled and cleaned the carbs. It was missing a few pieces (o-ring and washer on one idle mixing screw), and I put it all back together. The idle mix screw is supposed to be turned out 3.5 turns from bottomed out.

It started right up, but needs the choke to idle, stutters and hitches at higher revs

Question: is that 3.5 full turns or 3.5 half turns?

What does the lugging and hitching indicate? Float height is wrong?

I’m swapping out plugs tomorrow before I tough the carbs again.

Thanks