As Mothersbough says the slide only goes in properly one way . The cutaway on the slide
faces the air cleaner .

Well that was frustrating. Pretty sure I had the slide right, see pic. The cutaway on the slide facing the air cleaner. It'll go on 1 other way and slide down all the way but then the cable is all sticking out the cab weird & I could tell it wasn't right. The plate tab is facing down inside and is in the slot. Here's the deal it's bog city no matter what setting I put it on now. I moved it down 1 from factory and it bogged at open throttle so I moved it around and now it runs shitty on every setting. Sputters and bogs at various throttle positions. Almost acted like a dirty carb. I messed with the air filter, switched back to the pod, checked the main jet and after over-complicating everything took the carb completely off and cleaned it again. I thought maybe it wasn't the clip that it was a clogged main but no. No clog in idle/pilot jet. Took the spark arrestor off and for the record it sounds cool and throaty but that didn't change shit either. I did notice my throttle cable was frayed a bit and got worse from f'n with it a bunch but I snipped off a fray and when seated it moves properly, doesn't hang up in there. I finally just had to stop and leave it alone for awhile and am now wishing I never would've messed with it. So, it ran fine just kinda bogged when really ripping on the high rpm, now after adjusting the clip positions it idles perfect but runs like absolute garbage. ???????

Just a thought . Your throttle cable retaining plate is going over the needle isn't it .
The plate has two jobs . Stopping the cable from disengaging from the slide ,
and holding the needle securely in place .
I only mention this , as a good friend who bought himself a TS 250 , tried fiddling
with his carb , when it didn't run right after arriving from seller . When I got to see it ,
the first thing I noticed was the needle sitting on top of the retaining plate .
He , to put it politely is mechanically challenged , so didn't know any better .
Once correctly assembled bike ran fine .
However if you have been assembling slide assembly correctly , perhaps your
issue lies with the O ring on the setter in your float bowl . There is no mention of replacing
that in your posts .

Swoop you rock cuz' I must first admit I had the plate wrong. But, when I did realize that was wrong I also realized the spring was wanting to hang up on the plate and not seat right. So, got it figured out. As for the result of the change...2nd down is factory, 3rd down was a bit worse so I'm assuming 4 and 5 would be more so. I will try the first clip setting tomorrow I was just happy to have it back to where it was and ran out of time. Would be strange if the 1st clip setting was best as I was trying to get more fuel to balance the pod filter setup but I guess we'll see. Probably should've just went with my gut and up-jetted a bit.

Spark arrestor...I just plain prefer the exhaust tone and am not concerned about say spark or flame while being out in the bush, this is my around town bike. Any other disadvantages to taking it out? Seems like the exhaust would breath better anyway?

With your baffle removed , you will alter the back pressure in the pipe .
That's likely to further lean out your mixture . Just more jetting required , if the noise
doesn't offend you .

Cool will try that top clip setting and the arrestor off and just see how she goes. Am I gonna wanna mess with the air mix screw in conjunction with the clip setting at all?

It should only need to move 1/4 turn either way from stock setting ,
( tested when hot ) . Recheck after other changes , but likely to not need a further reset .

Yep gotta be careful to feel the needle into the jet plus get the slide onto the guide pin. If you have to do any pushing then the needle isn't in the jet & sometimes they can be a bit of a fiddle. Best to have the bike upright & level as possible because if leaned way over the needle 'could' just lean over a little and that's all it takes to make life difficult.

just saw ya photo up there & not sure that's an original carb [which doesn't matter] but thought the early models had the main jet accessible from the outside of the bowl base on left side at an angle. Sorry. i'm behind on the story i see "71/"81. Think you said you got the slide in the wrong way bit it won't go all the way down so you'll be compressing the spring hard to get the cap on & it'll be on at least half throttle so please don't try & start it. But i see you know the correct way now so that's good.

sorry, now i look closely i think i can see the main jet further around than i imagined.