You can only include 10 pictures in a single post, Lachie. After that you have to start another post.
There is an O ring that sits in a groove in the carburetor, where it slides over the intake port. A small amount of movement between the carburetor and port is normal, to allow alignment when the fuel tank is secured to the engine: that is what the O ring is for. As long as that O ring is intact, it should seal adequately against intake air leaks.
Your fuel intake screens seem to be reasonably clear, and are not the cause of your problem. You should clean the screen on the long tube with carburetor cleaner now that you have it dismantled, and you should clean and inspect the mixture adjustment needle and the metering holes behind it at the same time.
Then I suggest you concentrate on assembling the carburetor to the fuel tank correctly. It will be very difficult to do this by using the post-1984 manual, so I suggest you just read from an on-screen version of the pre-1984 manual, starting with the right-hand column on this page:
http://recoveryvehicles.tpub.com/TM-5-4240-501-14P/css/TM-5-4240-501-14P_98.htmUse the "next page" arrow at the top to move to subsequent pages.
If you read through those instructions and then come back to this thread, we should be able to get the it correctly assembled and working.
