Standing on the left of my bike, I reach over the tank/seat area to the right side with my right arm to allow a finger on my right hand to get at the adjustment screw while at the same time a finger on my left hand is accessing the screw from the left side via the starter area-then I use the two fingers to turn the pilot adjusting screw on the TM36 carb

Thankfully I have a 90 degree carb adjusting tool on the way

 

Yeah, its hard to get to it. I was able to use one finger at a time, its just lose enough I can move it.

 

It turns out my TM36-68 carb does not have a depression machined into the mouth of it to receive the lip in the rubber boot on the mouth of the intake. I am not sure on the best course of action here. I don't think machining the mouth of the carb is in the cards.

 

Really? That doesn't sound right. I'd be getting it replaced with a new one correctly machined.

 

So, after my research I went with this setup:

Pilot: 17.5 (VM28/486)
Main: 132.5 (N100.604)
Needle jet: 568 series P4
Jet needle: 9EBY01-50 – clipped in 3rd from the top

The bike started right up, but didn't need any choke. It ran well, but I don't have a lot to compare it to. The real problem is that the bike didn't, at all, respond to changes in the idle mixture screw. The was no change in idle at all no matter how far in or out it went.

So I changed and jetted down to a 15 pilot but it was just the same. Any thoughts on this mystery?

 

That's indeed strange. Not enough experience with the TM yet to speculate, but with the stock carb when my pilot was too large (#38) it acted the same; no significant idle change between screw fully in and three turns out.

 

That is odd. You should be able to pretty well kill the motor by turning it all the way in/closed. The fact that you get no idle change at all almost makes no sense. Is the bike idling normally as it is? How does it respond to the idle ****? Can you get it to idle higher and lower?

 

If the idle jet is vastly too large, is there a chance the idle mixture screw turned all the way in won't kill then engine? I say screw it in and let it idle, check the plug, if its super white you are super lean, and the opposite being super black is rich

 

Now after thinking it over there must be something wrong, like the needle isn't seating or I am missing an o-ring or something. Runs great otherwise.

 

Yep, the tip on the mixture screw should block off the port so no fuel would be entering the manifold when it's turned all the way in.