Awesome!! The carburetor works!!!...........And it apparently was working the entire time.....
(see my other thread: WTF is going on with my car!!!) Well, always doing things the hardest way possible......I've ruled out the possible fact that I may have a fuel problem!!!
It was an ignition problem all along.........gee, don't I feel special
Now, before anything, I need to note that the car has been running this way ever since I got it back in November --(I trailored it home).
Anyway, It looks and seems like the leading plugs are firing only half the time and with half the spark. I haven't really checked the trailing plugs---they don't really concern me right now, and they're only for emissions really. The rear rotor is the only one really firing, I've got decent compression (105 psi front and rear), I've tried 3 different sets of plugs--stock, racing, and non resistant single electrode....all NGK's, 3 different sets of wires---stock, magnecor, and crane cams. It has 2 MSD coils, and the cap and rotor look pretty new (and they're brass). Oh yeah, and after about a half an hour, I finally got it to stay running and it sounds like ***!!!!! with the choke on and idling at 2000 rpms, it takes 4 seconds to get close to 3000 rpms when I give it any amount of throttle (halfway to floored).
This, gentlemen, is my new dilemma.

 

are you sure the carbs fine? have you sprayed cleaner in it? make sure there is no wet spots around the sparkplug. have you adjusted your timming at all? is it a stock carb? if so are all your vac lines attatched including the spark timming advance.

 

It's a stock carb alright, and yeah, just finished rebuilding it 2 days ago and talked to Sterling about a problem I had with it. Originally, yesterday, it wouldn't run because there weren't any checkballs in it. So I did as Sterling suggested. Yeah, it's definitely gettin fuel now alright, cause when I finally had it running (really shitty though), all I could smell and see was unburnt gas coming out the tailpipe!! Yeah, I've got the vacuum advance hooked up, but I can't get to adjusting the timing just yet. Anything lower than 2000 rpms with the choke out, it'll just die. I sounds like a freakin airplane!! And sounds exactly like it's running on only one rotor, the rear one!! Both leading were sparking like I said, but it looked really weird. The were sparking half as much as they really should, and the spark seemed to jump all around, but really, really weak. This was with any combination of plugs and wires too!!

 

Have you checked your timing?

 

Also, like I said, the cap and rotor looked pretty new,(I've seen much worse on my other 1st gens and they ran fine) and I pulled the distributor out, aligned all the marks up (usual---leading mark on pulley aligned, as well as the marks on the distributor as well. It's definitely not timing. It has to do with actual spark delivery. Is it the aftermarket coils, the ignitor(s), or the distributor?? I don't want to have to replace everything and have the same thing happen again!!----you know, when I rebuilt the carb and found out that it wasn't the problem.
I'm definitely getting enough fuel.

 

I sounds to me like your car is retarded.. your timing that is.. Might wanna check that out. Oh and if they are sparking weird, check out your coils.

 

I've had that same problem in the past and come to find out it was my intake manifold gasket leaking. The reason I found out that was it is because, one night my car started up and sounded like it was running on one rotor but I was still able to drive it and I noticed that there was some coolant puddling where the manifold and the engine meets. After a bunch of bullshitting around trying to make my own gasket and plugging up the collant passage to the intake manifold I decided to replace the gasket and o-rings with the ones from VB and the problem went away. I guess some coolant was leaking into the combustion chamber. Not enough to kill the motor but enough to make it run like ****.

 

I'll definitely look into that soon, but for now I gotta get my plugs to fire correctly...really weak and erratic spark

 

Ignitors?

B

 

yeah. check the igniters. or just start it and move the dist timing a little to the right, not much, and see if it helps. if not go a little to the left. at least that might let you know if the timing is out way too much. you don't need a light to do it or a low idle.

 

Luckily, I was able to figure out the problem last night. The guy who owned the car before me had switched the wires/coils around. He had the leading and trailing mixed up. When I checked it a few times, I went by the Haynes manual in the ignition section. The photograph was reversed, so that really screwed me up! It showed in a diagram that the trailing ignitor was facing the fan and the leading facing the carb, so I just followed the wires. The other night I looked at the wire diagram in there and saw that it was the opposite. Something very simple, but a PITA. Thanks for your help though!! The car now runs awesome!! Still have yet to drive it!!