As you may or may not know I couldn't get the Flarechero running right with the carb I got with it. Steve had purchased it for $150 from his side of the world when the car was his, and it seemed to run "OK" to get the car over here. Jeff had borrowed it to test for some issues on his wagon and, like his, indicated a leak at the throttle plate. After an initial inspection and cleaning, I thought it was better, but not right at all.

So I pulled it off the Flarechero and put the Holley 1940 from the wagon onto it. It started instantly and with a little tweaking the 1940 runs famously and is at home for good on that motor since it didn't have the Spark Control Valve needed for the Load-o-matic distributor, which the wagon has, but the Flarechero doesn't need.

For what it's worth, the Holley 1940 is a "service replacement" Ford issued when the 1100 Autolite was discontinued in 1969. It was never offered as a factory installed carb, but may be the carb offered when you buy one for a Falcon/Mustang. You should always verify whether you need a spark control valve and whether your carb has one (a mistake I learned the hard way).

Tonight I pulled the 1100 out of the bath it has been taking for just shy of a week and proceeded to blow out all the orifices to make sure they are all open. Everything was.

As I was blowing things out and feeling for where air came out, I felt air coming out of a spot I didn't think air should be present; namely, the press-in/peened plug over the power valve vacuum cylinder. DING-DING-DING!

The symptom while on the Flarechero was rich running and stumble at idle. The symptom fits.

A power valve allows for an enrichened mixture under continued acceleration - after the accelerator pump squirt has been used up. It is directly vacuum related (dang, this subject keeps coming up). At idle the power valve should see full vacuum and should (in the case of the 1100) suck a rod upward to press a ball-check and close off the source of fuel. With the help of Gene, who happened to stop by with his crank pulleys, I hooked up a vacuum pump to the port feeding vacuum to the power valve, plugged off another port in the venturi also feeding this - and pumped. The valve moved a little. I then plugged the cap with my thumb and pumped - sucked the valve closed.

So, with the power valve not closing at idle there was a lot of fuel dumping and that led to both the inability to adjust the idle speed and a very rich mixture - which was why fuel was pooling and dribbling out the throttle plate shaft.

At least that is what I currently believe.

I mixed up some JB Weld and put a little over all the plugs on top of this carb to seal any vacuum or fuel leaks it may have. Proof will be the assembly and install - on the wagon. Wish me luck.