Sorry this might be kinda long....

I have a 96 Savage that I purchased last summer with 1800 miles on it.  Put about 1000 miles on it last summer and am now in the middle of getting it ready for this season.

Well yesterday I put the battery back in and fired it up, after some work I managed to get it going but it would only turn over for about 5-10 seconds before dying, if I let it idle it would die right away.  After doing this a few times I notice a serious amount of fuel dripping down from above and in front of the carb. If I switched the fuel line to PRI the fuel would keep trickle for a time, even with the bike off.

So after seeing this I did the following:

1. Took off the fuel tank and tested all the fuel lines, all were good
2. Replaced the spark plug
3. Charged the battery
4. Put it all back together and gave it another shot

It fired right up and sounded much better than before, but then after about 20 seconds of idling the fuel leak came back.  So I took it back apart and after lots of trial and error I finally found the leak, it was coming from the 2 vent hoses attached to the carb.

So I'm thinking I have a problem inside the carb, however I have no experience with carbs so I am very hesitant to open it up.  So here is my question, I took the carb out today and am going to give it to a mechanic friend who will have a look at it, but I went on ebay and bought a "Stage 1 jet kit that includes a #50 Slow jet, a #150 main jet, 2 new needle spacers and 4 new allen head bolts to replace your soft phillips head vacuum lid bolts".

Is it ok for my friend to simply install these pieces in the stock carb even though I have the stock muffler?  I've read a lot of posts on here about the stock carb running too lean (backfires) and am under the impression that this kit I bought will fix that problem.

Hopefully while he is in the carb he will find the source of the fuel leak as well.

Sorry if my terms are a little off here, Im very new to any mechanical work and I've only been riding a year.....

Any insight would be appreciated on the jet kit or the possible cause of the leak.

Thanks....

So the stock needle and seat should be replaced?  Will do.. should I just order the OEM parts or is there an 'upgrade'?

OE parts.I'm not sure if there is an upgrade.If there is LANCER would know.

Number 19 : VALVE ASSY,NEED 481751-001

You might read around, someone gave a carb only site.
They had parts sepparately.  You might find the needle by itself.
I thought I saw one for about $12 somewhere.

I am also looking at buying one of the Stage I or II jet kits from ebay.  Do they seem to work okay for you?  I just bought the Screamin' Eagle muffler on ebay for my S40 and want to upgrade the jets too.  I posted a question earlier today about which jet kit to buy.  I was referred to something that Lancer sells, but I can't find it on here yet.

Well finally got my carb apart, replaced the main and slow jets with a 150 and 50 and put 2 #4 washers in for the spacer.  Cleaned the whole thing (was little bits of gunk in it) and got it back on my bike.  It fired right up with the choke on.  

After letting it warm up I pushed the choke on and it wanted to die unless I kept it going with the throttle.  I went back and forth with this for about 30 minutes but the thing just wouldnt idle without dying.  I took it up and down my street to warm it up and it rode just fine, just would always die with idle.

I am now thinking that this is a problem with my mixture idle screw, so I think im going to drill that out and try to get to it.  But heres the interesting part, I did all of this work last night, but now I just went out and tried to start it and it wont turn over.  Im recharging the battery as we speak (hope its as simple as a weak battery) but im not so sure.

Any thoughts on the inability to idle or why it wont start now?

Could the reason it won't turn over be one of the safety features? Clutch, neutral, kickstand?