I was cleaning the chain on my bike tonight and noticed that I can grab the rear sprocket and turn it slightly.
Do I need new dampeners or is a little play ok?

 

For the cost and if you're not sure when the the cush drive rubbers were last replaced then yes bung in some new ones.

Some folk eke out a bit more from them by using plastic strips as shims

 

As Wicky stated, get some new cush drive rubbers. Next tire change slap 'em in there.

 

The ghetto/racetrack fix is to get about $2 worth of aluminum flashing from home depot and bend it over the rubber to shim them out. The rubber will still work its just a bit squished.

This is the quick fix but yeah long term you need to replace them. Its bad for the bike to have "wheel confusion" which is the slop you mention between on the power or engine braking. It creates harsh impacts where there should not be those.

 

Ha, nothing wrong with 20 year old rubber that has had all the goodness beat out of it.
Cheap maintenance item. Like Joe said that slop is bad.

 

Yes replace them, driveline shock is hard on well, the driveline.

One of these days I'll finish the mold I started and pour some poly dampeners

 

Sounds good guys! Figured the slop wasnt good at all.
Now I have to sort out the surging when riding. Im thinking the carbs need a going through. Steady throttle and the bike surges like im giving it small inputs on the throttle. Also when I crank into it at say 4k to 6-7k there is a huge bog and dead zone.
I figured its either the carbs or the gas not getting to the carbs.

 

First, if you haven't already, start at base line. That is, is the fuel system stock? Without doing that, you will wasting a lot of time and effort, and not be any further along for it.

 

I have to get the tank off and check the airbox and all.
The vac line for the diaphragm looked a bit rotted so I wonder if its just fuel starved from that?
For the price ill change out the fuel line and vac lines and go from there