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[vitamin_c95]

So I am finally getting the ball rolling to my restore/make road worthy truck. I've found some things I want to take care of, but fuzzy on my old school basics. Truck shakes a little on a cold start (unsure of acceptable limits as this is my first carbureated). It will run "fine" after maybe 30 seconds of feathering the gas. Exhaust smells like it's running rich. However, both my mufflers have holes so it's very loud and tough to tell how efficient it's running. Should I fix the mufflers first before checking timing/adjust mixture screws? I did see a broken exhaust stud 2 days ago when I pulled the driver fender liner as I was going to pressure wash the gearbox area to have a clean work area,.
So will this exhaust leaks skew my diagnosis of carb needing adjustment? Tank is low on gas (about an inch visually looking thru tank cap) and almost went to add some but was unsure of the tank level as I noticed gas gauge is not working. I will add a can first then drive to station after I drive the neighborhood so gain my trust of driving it far.
As I've also found my gauge is stuck on 3 clock. I'm more concerned with runability for now, and will tackle gas gauge later ( I've seen plenty of posts on here and still thumbing thru)