thanks for the responses fellas! i've seen pics others have posted and i've seen the same vacuum line unattached.
the carb was disassembled, soaked for a week, re-assembled and re-installed. still having trouble getting it to run to my standards as the open vacuum port still has me scratching my head. I found a link on resetting the tps sensor* and that has seemed to help get the idle a bit more acceptable.
still, as soon as i cover the open vacuum port it will die immediately. this is very strange as i've never seen this behavior on any other scooter. In fact, just the opposite happens! (pull off vacuum line and scooter dies)
I'm going to close it up where i'm at and call it a day as it's running well and reaching proper top speed, etc.
*tps reset - with key off, open throttle all the way. turn on the key, wait 8-10 seconds. slowly close the throttle and turn the key off.
fin!
btw - i work on scooters regularly. this is the first one of the models to come through my shop.