Well, I'd say the carb bowl is running dry. It backfires as the fuel mix goes lean. Pull the carb and fuel tank. Clean them, install new fuel lines and try again. :beerchug:

carb bowl has gas in it, fuel line has good gas flow, good flow out of needle/seat into bowl, float is set correctly. :bash2:

Something is plugged. Or the tank doesn't vent well. Look it over again, I think your missing it. Did you make your own air breather gasket? Maybe you blocked the vent to the carb bowl? :bigthink:

made the gasket from carb to motor, since the old one was half missing. tank vent is fine. guess i will grab new points/condenser and see if that does anything, coil to.

If your going to change all those parts, check Dave Kirks site out for a points saver kit. It makes it a lot easier to time too.

http://www.kirkengines.com/

gas tank cap is the vented type with a hole in the center?

Defective condenser. BTDT

little update:

got another carb off ebay, and after messing around, it made no difference.
cleaned all the crap off of where the condenser/coil mount and it ran a little better.
new head gasket = little better
new points/condensor, and it actually will make it up my driveway in 2nd gear(about 2% grade).
gonna clean the valves when i get back home.

thanks for everyone's help

Thanks for the update!

An easy way to tell if it's starving for fuel is to pull the choke out when it starts to die, if that helps, then you know you've got a fuel problem.