Basic Carb Question

On my 235 with a single barrel I have a hard time keeping it running unles its choked. Even when its hot. What could cause this?

 

vacuum leak

 

Sounds like it's running lean. Make sure you're not ****ing air in through any of the gaskets. You really ought to give more info on the carb and its situation...

 

What could cause this? About a million things. Start with checking for a vacuum leak at the manifold. Basic tune up next.

 

yep, what they said. take some carb cleaner and shoot it around the base of the carb and intake manifold and see if the motor picks up when you do it. easy way to find a leak

 

No vacuum leak. It actually ran fine before a buddy tried to make it run better.

 

And what did he do? This is like pulling teeth...

 

Amen, undo what your ex-buddy did.

 

Sorry, He adjusted the idle, chock and something else. There are 3 adjustment screws on it, and he mesed with all of them.

 

at the base of your carb.you have an idle air fuel mixture screw,(while car is not running)turn it clock wise all the way in and then two full turn out start car and adjust in or out as needed. Hope that helps

 

You'd also do well by yourself to make notes on what you change and only change one thing at a time in the future, I know it's tedious, but it makes it easy to go back to where you were if your change doesn't improve things.

 

Thanks for the help!!

 

Take the top half off and make sure your floats aren't binding and set to the proper level. I had an annoying stalling problem and a $16 rebuild kit fixed it- but I really think the floats were just binding up.

 

the idle mixture screw is the one that goes into the base of the carb, the idle speed screw is the one that makes the linkage move a bit when you screw it in.

on that mixture screw...as he said, bottom it out, then unscrew it two turns, start up the car and see what happens when you screw it in a little bit, and out a little bit. You want to set it so that when you screw it out a little bit (out makes it richer) nothing happens, but when you screw it in (in makes it leaner) a bit the RPM drops a little. then unscrew it about another quarter turn. Set the idle speed so the idle is kind of slow, but not so slow that the engine wants to die. that would be about 500 rpm if you have a tachometer. Be sure to recheck the mixture after you set the idle speed, you usually have to tweak them both a couple times to get it right.

If it dies easily then it might need to be adjusted richer, if it chugs then go leaner.

Also if the timing is not right, or there are vacuum leaks or other problems with the engine, playing with the carb screws won't do what they're supposed to do.