GCSS

well...we are rolling again! I believe it was the needle up too far into the piston. I got it to idle now . I adjusted it good enough to go to town and back. good...very good performance. low to no load is crappy though. I'm not going to worry about that until I adjust the valves and get the airflow meter back, and rebuild them and check the floats. at least the idle isn't gone wild anymore. THANKYOU!!!!! you're a real champ! Thanks again! Blue!! Dave

I had one on there earlier when the car was running better than it is now. At this point I don't need one of them until I get the engine settled down some. It is just way too wild right now. I either have a leak or possibly unbalanced piston/needle assemblies or both. I am going to Church right now and will be back around 1:00 CST. I went to blue's videos and they are good. I plan to utilize them when I get home. thanks Dave

there is no haphazardly turning of the screws going on here. I read the FSM, and even went to a few websites and reap up on tuning. It is after the tuning didn't work that I decided to check elsewhere....read my postings to see what I did and what the processes were. The problem is within the first carb.

Hi Gary,I don't know what you mean by a high overthrow,but the linkages seem to be just fine. the piston needle assy that was dropped goes up and down freely. I checked it against the other one and they both are the same.they go up and down real smooth and steady. I am using 30W oil in the dampers. I wonder if somehow I accidently lost a small o-ring or something...a check ball??? I looked at the carbs real good and I just don't see anything wrong. One thing of note and I should have mentioned it earlier is that I initially placed a small piece of gasket material over the coolant holes and put it all together and it didn't hold under a radiator pressure test, so I removed it and cut out a whole new gasket for both sides. when I went to start the car I had hydrolocked the motor with antifreeze. I pulled all the plugs and blew out the holes and after a new set of plugs were installed, I finally got the car running again. I don't think this deal is related to the high idle. I even check the carb baseplates for warpage with a Machinist's Straight-edge and the bases were not bent or warped.

I did disconnect and reconnect the choke cables. I did pull them tight...in such that what I did was I pushed down on the choke lever (In the Open position)and pulled the choke cable wire up and then tightened the screw. that way there would be tension holding the choke in the OPEN position. you're saying a common mistake is making them too tight...OK, I will go and loosen them, but I don't think it will help because the front carb (the one that has the dropped piston) is the one giving me grief and I di the choke cable the same way on BOTH carbs. The car ran good at idle and drove ok but had poor performance. so I adjusted the bottom thumbscrew (actually is the needle's seat) unscrewed them about a turn. and then the car would have good performance, but bad on the slow speed example...driving through town at 35 mph steady it would buck. and regardless of what settings I had the carb at it woukld sometimes buck at even high rpms. The dwell angle is correct, new points, new plugs, new wires,new cap,same coil.at this point I am going to try a can of carb cleaner and check for leaks question...what is the float specs? I want to double check it to be sure even though it may not cause the high "idle" Thanks.....

I don't think I should have to mess with the throttle plate and linkages as the car was idling fine to begin with. all I was doing was cleaning the carb due to the trash in the fuel tank. I blew out all the passageways hoping to dislodge any dirt particles that may be trapped.

I went through all that. I put it together back to the way it was . the gaskets were all OK, the only thing that I changed was covering up the coolant passage, and in the carb in question, I did bend the needle,but got it very straight. I don't know if that could be the problem still or not. The forward carb is sucking air more than the rear one is. I'm gonna say that 99% of the high "idle" is from that carb. I even applied rtv to the base gasket to insure a good seal. I'm going to remove the carb again tomorrow and redo the gasket to be sure. The FSM is vague where it states the locating points to measure and what the actual specs are for the float settings.If anyone knows what these are, I'd like to know so I can double check that. From what I can see there are no check balls,so I don't think I could have lost one of them, question.... if ,supposedly there is a vacum leak between the carb and intake, will this cause the motor to race? I don't know much about these sidedraft carbs. They really are simple in design and I really am suprised there are books written on them.

been there tried that ...no good... at least for me anyhow..

well to start with I took the carbs apart to clean. The car just wasn't right.so after about ten fuel filters,I figured the gas tank had way too much trash in it.... I found a quart of rocks and a pine cone and pine needles and an 1156 light bulb in the gas tank!!! Like i always said...WATCH THAT CHILD!!! so...I decided to clean the carbs. been wrenching for 40 years and doing carbs is no biggie. my first with the SUs. I just took them apart, found some sediment in the bowls and blew out the passageways. I did drop one piston and needle assy.I looked at it very cosely and I just can't see anything wrong with it. The tip is nice and sharp. well I put it all together and the car was liking to idle about 3000 rpms. I did get it down to 1800 by turning the thumbscrews under the carbs. The carb with the dropped assy is sucking alot of air, the rear carb, is not. I suspect there is something wrong with the front carb, but don't know enough about these to be sure. I did back off all the idle screws and the motor is racing too high. what should my next step be?????? Thanks... (no wise guys please)

well I quit. I worked on trying to get at the back side of them gauges and after spending 45 min or so, I,m done. The radio is in there good. It just looks like it is going to be a real hassle to get the radio out and for what??? I already have the trusty mechanical gauges hooked up so. I,m just going to leave it at that. SOMEDAY if I ever take out the dash or radio, I'll deal with the problem then. Boy... oh boy... the underside of the dash on the 68 Dodge Dart I,m working on has enough room to walk around in. Thanks for the help anyways.

I'll hook up a jumper wire ground and see what happens. If this don't work, I'm just going to forget about them gauges. I would rather have mechanicals anyways. The reason I have been trying to get the gauges working is that it was bugging me and wanted to beat the system....(electrical system ...that is.)

I don't know about the appropriateness of the spoonfeeding comment, but I unplugged the wire at the sneding unit when I used the 9v battery. I also unplugged the 4 pin connector where the gauges go into the main harness and turned the key on, no power at any of the pins. somewhere between the 4 pin connector and the power supply there is an open in the circuit. I checked the fuse holders under the radio in that snaggle of wires that go to the fusebox and the fuses are good.

I looked at the FSM... looks like the connector is under the dash. I guess I need to try to find that connector under the dash... and then unplug it and check on the harness side (not the gauge side) touch all 4 of the pins and see if I can get my test light to illuminate......right? Boy this is gonna be a pain in the bazungas. it is tight under there. I don't have japanese hands. I'll get under there tomorrow and get back with you ..thanks. Dave

OK PLEASE bear with me as electricals really are not one of my strengths. From what you say I gather I need to locate a 4 pin connector. and basically check for the presence of 12 V. where is this connector located? Again, thanks for helping me. I am learning here.

I have a Volt/Ohmeter,but don't know what I should do.