Haha thanks for the tough love trek97...I need it after today. I really appreciate the help. I compared what you were saying to your diagram and I was agjusting the correct screws, I apologize if I was calling them different things. I sprayed starter fluid around the intake boots and the carb itself but it didn't change the rpms at all. The butterfly valves snap back when the throttle is released, there is play in the throttle cable, and when I take the carbs off and play with the throttle, the butteryfly valves aren't getting hung up on anything. The slides move freely up and down and the diaphragms have a good seal.
I am setting the idle speed using trek97's process writeup, with a hot engine setting the idle speed screw to 1200 rpm and then adjusting the A/F mixture screws slightly (the A/F mixture screws don't seem to affect the rpms at all when I am adjusting the mixture). Right now I have them set to 1.5 turns out from lightly seated. It will idle nicely at 1200 but as soon as i ride it and come to a stop, the idle will like to hang around 2000-2500 (varies each time between 2000 and 2500.)
I PM'd crazypj for some adapters so I can sync the carbs. One thing I noticed today when tinkering around is that after I took off the fuel lines, I checked the fuel flow out of the petcock and when I switch the the knob to "on", the two outlets have very different flows out of each. One outlet drips fuel out of it significantly faster than the other. Not sure if this could also cause the erratic idle, but it doesn't seem to make a difference when I'm riding it. The bike accelerates smoothly through all the gears, no popping out of the exhaust, no hesitations, and no motel bed vibrations lol so I don't think that the carbs are too far out of sync.