i installed the new carb and it's a beast. as others have said, it's like driving a different car and puts an entirely new smile on your face. that's the good news. now the bad......i'm having problems with the new carb and i'm not sure whether th eproblem is with the carb itself, the installation, or the installer (me).
the symptoms i'm getting are that the engine slowly cycles up and down (like from a vacuum leak) and there are terrific pops when decelerating. i'm not sure if these symptoms are related to each other or not.
here's what happended...
the new carb didn't come with a new gasket, so i used the old one and immediately disgnosed a vacuum leak by spraying carb cleaner around the base of the carb (which stopped the engine cycling up and down). so i bought some rubber gasket material and made my own gasket, but i still had the carb leak. finally, i bought some of the carb maker in a can and used it according to the directions, but i still have the vacuum leak around the base of the carb (which goes away temporarily with the carb cleaner).
one other thing i noticed is that the mixture screw seems to have very little effect on the carb, cranked all the way in, the engine will be stop, but after a turn, the engine stays running (with the cycling stuff going on). but turning it out further (like several turns) has no effect at all. not sure this is also related to the vacuum leak. The screw i'm speaking about is near the base of the carb and faces the driver side fender. it's in the bottom of this picture and turned most of the way out.
In reviewing all the previous connections, i noticed there is one electrical connection that i did not connect to the new carb. there is a place for it (under a large brass screw) but the receptical under the screw is a different size than on the old carb and the fitting is the wrong size. i was not able to trace the connector on the old carb back to its source as it disappeared into a bundle of wires. you can see the electrical connection on the old carb at the top center of this picture.
and here are two pictures of the distributor, in case it matters.
my next step was going to put the old carb back on and test it, but i thought i'd ask the experts here first.
so, here are my questions:
1. is the popping on deceleration caused by the vacuum leak?
2. is the mixture screw not having much affect caused by the vacuum leak?
3. what's the best way to fix the vacuum leak?
4. what was the electrical connection on the old carb for and is it needed on the new carb? if so, where do i find the correct fitting?