Re: [Amc-list] Carb adjustments - Holley 1909 one barrel

[Tom Jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx>]

Bruce Griffis wrote:
> On the oil: I changed it after putting the rebuilt head on, but before
> replacing the fuel pump. It looked really nice for a short while, and
> now has a bad smell. I'm guessing gas as the level went up a little as
> well. So, I'll change it to be safe. It's now at the proper level, so
> I either leaked a lot (which I did, out the valve cover gasket and the
> access plate gasket) or burned a lot (maybe so - as the smoke is
> mighty blue!).

Up a quart is a hell of a lot of gas -- that just doesn't sound rigt for 
a fuel pump or flooding carb. Might be a red herring here.

> 
> Vacuum lines: I ran from intake to the fuel pump then to the wipers. I
> ran 'em one way and the wipers didn't work at all. Swapped 'em at the
> fuel pump and the wipers work if I give them a push. They did work
> fine off a line directly from the intake manifold - and I'm getting
> around 19-21 pounds of pressure there if I remember correctly. I'll
> test on the line going from the fuel line/vacuum booster to the wipers
> to see what I'm getting there.

This sounds funny, but you can check it from First Principles easy 
enough -- with the engine running, your fingertip over one then the 
other port, one will suck. That goes to the wiper motor, the other to 
the intake. Think of it pumping air into the manifold!

> Plugs are dry but very sooty. I cleaned 'em a bit. I'm thinking of
> replacing them and saving them for spares. 

If they're newish, and just sooted up from the recent work, they'll 
clean up when you get it running clean. Sounds like gas soot. Oil soot 
isn't dry!

> My oldest son and I pulled the carb off and checked it out. My middle
> son did a good job of cleaning it and reassembling it. We checked the
> needle and where it seats. We checked the whole carb out and cleaned
> the choke assembly (now I know what you guys mean! That was pretty
> gunked up!). I don't see anything obviously dirty or fouled - other
> than the choke assembly - and we took care of that. I'm not sure why
> it appeared wet around the base previously, unless I leaked some from
> the fuel line - or the needle was having issues and taking the car
> apart, cleaning and putting it together again helped resolve that.

So it;s not all wet now? Good -- after work like that, the first thing 
to fix is stuff that will ruin things! Sounds like you got that. No oil 
on plugs, you changed the oil so gas in there is moot now, plugs sound 
OK in spite of sootiness.

If it's just running badly due to adjustments (spark, carb) that won't 
break anything, just divide and conquer!

* If it runs well enough to idle, even 800 rpm or whatever, make sure 
the ignition is right. Pull/plug the hose to the distrib, set static 
timing, rev it up (2000 rpm+) see that it advances. At idle, put hose to 
manifold vacuum, see that it advances. With that, the Pertronix, a 
decent coil, and clean tight connections, you can set that aside.

* THe carb ought to behave normally. They're subtle! If the idle screw 
doesn't end up around 1.5 - 2 turns out, there's something wrong. If the 
screw is set RICH then there's a vacuum leak. If the screw is set LEAN, 
then there's too much gas, somehow; this is less common, generally means 
  something like stuck/sunk float, carb assembled wrong, that sort of 
thing. Vacuum leaks are easy to have! With a vacuum (air) leak the carb 
needs more gas to idle (eg. rich).


> While going over it - we saw that is does not have a dashpot. Does it
> need one? It ran okay without one for the first 600 miles we put on it
> (or we didn't notice any problems with everything else going on).

Nahh. Dashpots are to prevent stalling when you pop your foot off the 
gas, mostly with automatics or A/C. They're a kludge (necessary kludge, 
sometimes :-) Certianly won't affect tuneup.
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