Okay, so maybe it's NOT the carburetor...
Well, we tried my carburetor on Roger's truck. It worked just fine. :WHATTHE:
I went back and borrowed Carter's "swap meet" Holley and tried it again. This time I scavenged all the missing parts from my Holley so I could drive it. In truth, it may work a little better than my carburetor, but it still runs so bad, I'm now convinced the problem is probably NOT my carburetor!
It only has about 10 in Hg vacuum at "idle", but I can't find a vacuum leak (doesn't mean there isn't one!). I checked that the distributor gear is on the right tooth.
I really don't know where to go from here. Anybody know a tune-up genius with a reputation for fixing obscure problems like this?
Freddie's back on the road!
Alas, my push rods are still at large...
However, I "borrowed" the rocker shaft assembly and push rods out of "engine #2" from Carter and installed them.
She runs about the same as the last time I drove her. She ran, and runs, well enough that I vowed to start taking her to shows if I got the other issues resolved (which I have). She still runs hesitantly at low speeds in top gear, and is is a little reluctant to idle, but it's not too bad and it's pretty easy to keep her running at stop signs now.
So, true to my vow, I'll be taking her to the Fathers Day show at Country Village in Bothell next Sunday (June 19) for her debut appearance! I've also got the registration form for Greenwood all filled out and ready to mail.
The valve train is now very sound, which is to say there are no more bad sounds coming from it. During one test drive, I kept her booted until the secondaries opened.... WOW!! The thing took off like a Saturn V ROCKET! It makes me feel somewhat better about the whole project, to say the least!
Looking forward to "being around" again!