Thanks for the suggestions, guys. I just ordered one stateside, let´s see if the USPS is up to the job
. It should be here by the end of the week, best case. Meanwhile, we drained the tank and attempted to remove it. Bloody impossible, it turned out. The petcock is in the way, so there was no way of bringing the tank far back enough to free it without removing the petcock. Idiotic design..so, while en route, we might as well "slot mod" the spark plug cover for easy access in the future.
BTW, the vacuum thing still works. I dismantled it and applied suction, and it moves inward ca 5 mm. Lord knows though, whether the vacuum in the carb is all that strong. It´s a suspect, an accident waiting to happen, and will be swapped anyway.
Today, some basic tool knowledge was transferred to the young lady, who actually did all the removal stuff by herself. Now implanting the good habit of putting things that belong together in small boxes with tape labels. And taking pics of everything.