1985 150 xr2 excessively high idle

I'm working on my fishing buddies action craft with above mentioned mercury. None of the carbs are equipped with vent bowl jets, I know mercury installed them in some carbs and left them out in others. I looked up the parts diagram for this engine and carb, it shows a jet listed as the "main vent bowl jet" and another listed as "vent bowl jet". Does anyone know if they are intentionally omitted from this model? The problem i'm having is the excessively high idle. The flywheel cover is missing so I fabricated my own pointer, established TDC and timed it in to 7* atdc for the pick up and 23* WOT. At 7* it idles just over 2000 rpm, I have retarded it to 10* and it idles great there but as soon as I start to open up the carbs it falls on its face. I made sure the carb flaps are all completely closed at idle and all open at the same rate all the way to WOT. I removed the idle stabilizer and oil alarm module as the pump was already bypassed. The check valve used to pressurize the oil system was stuck open so I tapped it and threaded a bolt with gasket sealer in to stop vacuum loss. I grew up in key west and worked at several marinas, i have a moderate amount of experience with outboards but mostly yammies and johnrudes this merc is driving me nuts! As well as the high idle it will sometimes fall off plane or bog as you increase throttle input, other times it screams and is runs just over 65mph. Entire fuel system has been disassembled and cleaned, new fuel lines, new sierra bulb, factory bayonett fitting has been replaced with double barb, new plugs, and new racor filter. Please Help!

Re: 1985 150 xr2 excessively high idle

Forgot to mention compression is 120-122 across the board. Carbs are WH-29.

Re: 1985 150 xr2 excessively high idle

A stator can also cause this problem, disconnect the bia's jumper on packs and see if idle drops

Re: 1985 150 xr2 excessively high idle

Thank you, I will try that as soon as he brings it back. I found that the top and bottom carbs were swapped around so I put them back in their proper locations, did another link and sync and timing adjustment and got it to settle down a little. He insisted on taking it out today and I havent heard from him yet so hopefully its not acting up too badly. The jumper is on the far left and white correct?