I need to understand how to set up and 'clock' my thermostat inside of its housing.

I have taken apart my original choke thermostat assembly and housing to refurbish/clean and re-assemble. Ive got the internals back together, and Im realizing you have to clock the assembly before you tighten the nut that holds it to the housing. I'm not sure where to position it, or how that changes choke operation.

I suspect it has something to do with these marks on the washer of the spring assembly, and hash marks on the housing with what looks like an L to the right. I assume this means Lean. The washer has a single hash mark in it, and is probably meant to be adjusted to line up with the marks on the housing, depending on how far you want the choke to close on the carb during cold start up? Where is a good place to start when setting this? With the washer hash mark at 12 'o clock? (in the pic it can be hard to see the washer hash mark as the metal is slightly pitted, but it's there)

L is for Leaner and R is for Richer. The spec is in the factory service manual; in many year/carb combinations it's 2 notches to the R side ("Two notches rich"), but in some combinations it's other than that, so check.

You will have a much happier result if you will leave off trying to make that old choke work well, and instead put in a № 1231 Electric choke kit. If you are using anything other than a '70-'72 exhaust manifold (with open hole where the choke cup mounts) then you cannot make this type of choke correctly and pretty much must go to the electric choke setup.

Either way, your biggest challenge is going to be finding the correct gasket to seal that stainless steel choke cup (or a blockoff plate you might make if you go with the electric choke) to the exhaust manifold—not a concern with the pre-'70 or post-'72 type exhaust manifolds.

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Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Im a fan of the electric choke conversions. I've got one for my 76 ramcharger 400.

But since I'm keeping this car as original as possible, and I've already gone through the trouble of refurbishment, I'm going to try and use the original. I've made a gasket out of a felpro high temp gasket sheet, and we'll see how it goes. I may end up going electric we'll see. I live in wa state so it does get pretty cold in winter

These units are a pain to adjust once installed on intake, as there's no easy way to keep the inside from moving while you tighten the nut outside.

Regardless, I set mine as recommended and it's been working perfectly.