[testerdahl]

After a busy afternoon yesterday, I was able to scrub up and clean the carburetor as well as the oil bath. I also rebuilt the carb using parts from a kit, reset the float which was off by a .5" and put fresh oil in the oil bath. Also, painted the oil bath. Finally, set the idle.

The backfiring is still there, but it does run smoother as evidenced after a test drive. It definitely feels like the gas input is much better.

I checked the vacuum advance and it is working just fine.

This leaves the distributor and an exhaust leak as the causes of the backfiring. I've ordered new points, cap, distributor and rotor. I'll take care of them next weekend. Then, I'll be narrowing down the exhaust leak. I know there is a leak somewhere since I can see some smoke in the rear of the engine. Also, there is plenty of white smoke coming out of the exhaust, so it seems like something is not right. Oh and I bought a new valve cover gasket as well. I feel like there might be a leak there as well with the rear of the valve cover being pretty dirty even after spraying the engine down with cleaner and spraying it off.

I'll update when I get a chance to wrench on it again.