[testerdahl]

I thought I would give an update on a few things.

First, I'm currently going through carburetor hell. I initially rebuilt the carb and it ran fine, EXCEPT for when in 3rd and 4th gear. The truck would bog down. FIL looked at it and saw the throttle body handle (?) was extremely loose and literally would move up and down. Fine. Ran to the farm and found another Rochester carb.

We took the parts from the carb I rebuilt and put them into the farm carb. Now it won't idle right. It is strange. Turning the air mixture screw all the way in, keeps it running. Turning the screw all the way out kills the truck. I've played with it quite a bit and my neighbor thinks I need a new carb. I'm not so convinced for, no better reason, than how could a screw adjustment go bad like that? We have throughly cleaned the carb, sprayed in cleaner and rebuilt everything.

I read online dirty spark plugs could cause idle issues. We pulled one out and it is black and covered in carbon. I'm thinking this is likely due to how rich it ran and how long the truck sat. I'm currently toying with either getting a new carb OR switching out plugs.

Oh and by the way, I drove it around with the new carb and it runs really well in 3rd and 4th gear.

Also, the backfire issue was due to spark plug #3 and #4 being in the wrong place. A quick swap and problem solved. Whoops!

There are also exhaust leak issues to deal with and a leaky valve cover. I have all those gaskets and I'm thinking of just tearing about the top of the engine, cleaning, painting and putting in new gaskets. Then, maybe I'll switch out the spark plugs and then see what happens. Although, I may just buy a new carb anyway. Really toying with what to do.