1986 Marathon 2 stroke won't start hot without choke

[newman0912]

Hi. It's been a while. Well, we're finally getting into some work on this cart. It was running really rough, then I found out my son removed the air filter assembly to squirt starting fluid in the carb last year and never put the filter assembly back on!!! UGH.
I removed the carb today, took it completely apart and cleaned everything. I ran a tiny drill through the end of the smallest little hole in the side port (sorry, I don't know what it's called), but everything back together and it's running but not very good. It only starts by feathering the choke, and it's 85 degrees out with the engine running about 5 minutes. Still needs the choke to start. Once running, it sounds smooth but there's no power whatsoever.
We paid $500 for it 5 years ago and haven't really put anything into it, but still, I'd like to keep it going if I can.

Any thoughts? If it's serious engine work, that's not my thing - I'm embarrassed to say. Carb removal is about as far as I get.

Thanks for reading, hopefully there's something I can try to get it back moving again.