agreed, but some people are more talented than others. again i have never seen this myself, just read about it somewhere, maybe on this forum, so it must be true! keep us posted. i'm sure you'll find the root cause. have you taken the boot out and inspected it? maybe its a new manifestation of ethanol.I don't see how that is possible. The throttle and choke rod aren't anywhere close to the boot. The rods come into the carb box from the top and the boot is an inch and a half below.....and on the other side of the carb box.