Love this explanation @mikidymac . Thank you. So unfortunately just getting the needle to pop at a specified pressure is not enough to guarantee that the carb/needle is going to allow the appropriate amount of fuel to enter due to spring tension, those little buggers are pretty precise then. I had thought maybe they were less crude and that maybe if it opened at the right pressure that, that would work. It would be interesting to have a tool that would compress the spring and give you a reading of force as you depress it. I’m sure that such a tool exists but.... not worth it to play around with finicky stuff such as this. Maybe when I’m old and grey, oh wait, shit I’m already partially greying and old, lol.The grams are the stiffness of the spring. Increasing the preload will increase the pop-off but not the spring rate.
Keep in mind Pop-off is just a test of the spring, arm and needle/seat, it is not how the carb actually works.
When the carb is on the ski and you open the throttle butterfly there is a negative pressure inside the carb and a positive pressure with the atmosphere, this pushes the big rubber diaphragm against the lever arm, overcomes the spring pressure and opens the needle allowing more fuel into the carb. This diaphragm has a range of motion so changing the spring tension changes how much the diaphragm moves the lever arm and needle. So adding preload will change the opening pressure but not really the range of motion, this is why you change spring weights and not just adding more preload.
The stronger the spring the leaner the fueling will be since the diaphragm needs more vacuum to move and allows less fuel into the carb. A lighter spring will allow more fuel in under less vacuum and make the carb richer also a large needle and seat with a lighter spring and the engine vibration can cause the carb to dribble fuel and cause a rich bog and flooding, this is why high pop-off pressures are used.