I use to futz with my carter all the time. Once you get use to it, the carb's not too hard to work on.
Normally, the venturis get clogged up. It's been 10 years, but I believe that if you just take the air cleaner off, and look down the throat, you can see the venturi cluster. You can remove the whole thing, and run guitar wire down them to clean them out.
after I got better at it, I could do it with the carb on the jeep no problem.