The high humidity of the current rainy weather will mess with the performance of your engine. These little air breathers don't handle moisture so well.
When you say side, are you meaning "slide"? As in do you have a slide carb?
If it is a slide carb and it is showing the ability to rotate, that is a bad sign. That indicates that the idle set screw, which is supposed to go tongue in groove into a track on the barrel of the slide carb, may not be properly seated. The HSN might also be in the damaged category as it also has a point that rides the barrel. I am not quite familiar with how the LSN interacts with the carb on a slide carb, but I would imagine that it is probably fine. The needle that usually gets all the abuse is the HSN.
Glad you found a bud to loan you a carb. Hopefully, you will be running right as rain as soon as the rain goes away. Let us know if there is more we can help with.
And as much as it pains me to say this, I agree with Matts. Depending on how much dirt you think went into the carb, if any made it past the carb and into the engine casing...you may find bigger problems. A single grain of sand can completely destroy the performance of these little buggers. You may want to remove the head and give the internals of the engine a real good once over. Look for big nicks, gouges and or scrathes. The areas that are of most concern are not necessarily the head of the piston, but the edges of the piston and the sleeve. The scratches, nicks, or gouges can cause a bad seal and a loss of compression. This means that the fuel and combustion gases can leak around the piston during its stroke. This will give you a distinct loss of power from the engine.
