Got the Weber carb mostly sorted out. Float level was way off, and I had the primary throttle plate off-center in the bore, so it leaked air at idle, and caused the vacuum port to be below the throttle so there wa svacuum at idle. All fixed. Found a crack in the power valve diaphragm (I think I over-tightened it), repaired with silicone (ugh!), will buy a replacement locally tomorrow AM. Choke and fast idle set well enough.
The air horns, which are removable, seemed a bit loose, which would really make mixture bent; I ran the holed end on 600 grit on a ground iron block for super-flat, squeezed the other end to lengthen the air horn a fraction of a mil, and got a nice air-tight finger-friction fit, and eliminated some midrange stumble.
If you must use a 2 bbl carb, the DGEV 32/36 Weber is pretty nice. It's italian, so it's slightly odd, but once you enter their world it's pretty straightforward, a hell of a lot nicer to work on than a damned Holley. It's the fastest six I've ever driven, it pulls like a small V8 around 2200 rpm up. 2.73 axle, and 25" tires.
I have an occasional one-cylinder stumble at idle. Sounds like lean stumble, but I can't figure out what it is. I opened the idle micture 1/2 T rich, no difference.
I just juggled PCV valves I had in the junkbox until I found one it idles well with. Is there science here, or should I just use voodoo?
There's no measured-miles around here anywhere, and my speedo is way off. The AMC tachometer seems mostly decorative, idle it reads 250 rpm (right) so I will ahve to duct-tape my DVM type tach to the hood and drive around to figure out which speedo gear I need. I don't even know what's in it! I estimate 70mph when the speedo reads 60mph. Mileage seems decent, haven't calculated it since the speedo is stupid.
Using the British method for setting timing -- adjust then drive. No pinging yet. I put Ford recurve springs in the disrtrib some time ago.
I was hot to get a 2.5 turn steering gear, but I'm having second thoughts. There's a 3.25? turn box in there now; it feels pretty quick (anything will, after a manual-gear 63 Classic!). With a 108" wheelbase and 70mph I don't think I want anything faster. The 16" dead-stock steering wheel is also perfect, hell no changing that.
I scrounged together wipers finally. A 1973 motor, pushrods and wiper arms, some 1980's switch and intermittent controller (which was undesireably intermittent, I had to disassemble and repair the switch), repacked with grease (switch and motor) Bosch microedge blades, and it's as good as a new car. Sweet!
And I'm definitely going to keep the factory-steel wheels. I like the dog dish hubcaps, even though I've found a set of decent 14x7 AMC rallye wheels complete for a decent price. Locally too. But I really want 14x7 plain steel that take AMC dogdish hubcaps!
Does anyone know if there ever was a 14x7 plain steel wheel? Are dog-dish hub caps interchangable across makes? Eg. will my AMC hubcaps fit on Ford wheels?