I got the old 390 cfm Holley rebuilt on Monday. The hardest part was removing the old bits of paper gasket. I did not disturb the butterflies as they were nice and snug, and no grooving in the throttle body.
Tuesday was just too cold & snowy to be bolting down aluminum bits with a high of 14 deg F, however today it was rain, 50 degs., and the snow was gone, so I installed the carb. For those of you that don't live in a cold climate, when iron is real cold and than the air suddenly warms 50 degs. in a few hours and is humid, everything sweats.
After checking for loose fittings, I turned the green knob on the battery to let loose 12 volts, and jumped in and cranked her over for a bit. First there was vapor wafting up by the fire wall, at which point I stopped the crankage (new word) to investigate... No big deal, the starter just warmed up and was evaporating some condensation. About five seconds into the second cranking session she fired up to a nice smooth high idle.
After a little messing around with the vacuum gage & screw driver, I took it for a spin on our neighbor hood sand covered streets in the rain, and spin it did LOL. For the first time since I have owned this car, I was able to get WOT, and open secondary's. Granted I was in first gear the whole time, but this car has a new perky personality.
One reason for non performing vacuum operated secondary's:
Watch the transmission page for the next project in this never ending saga of mission creep...