Moped Army

Hello Everyone,

I was just given a 1982 Yamaha QT 50 Yamahopper. It was sitting in a garage for the past 15 years but is in pretty good shape. Rust in tank and on the chrome peices but only light. Can't wait to begin my restoration of it. Before I get to that point i need to get it running first. Other than that it has everything except the plastic covers for the electrical under the seat. I see a lot of people are missing that too.
It has spark, and has good compresssion. And it does run. after cleaning the carb. The only problem is it won't stay running. And the only way i can get ti to start is to hold my hand over the opening of the carb while kickig it and with the choke on. This suction allows it to suck more gas and will let it run. I can feel a lot of suction when its running so its got vacuum there. as long as i keep doing this every 30 seconds or so it'll keep running. I'm not quite sure what might be causing this issue. Seems to me like for some reason the carb might not want to suck the gas or somethings causing it not to suck the gas as much as it should. Could it be dirty or stuck reeds? I have yet to take that apart. I'm not running the gas in the tank becasue of the slight rust, I have a small plastic tank I'm using to test it for now. I was just curious to see if any of you might have any ideas. Any help or info would be greatly appreciated.

Rob