Hello all, again.
I had hoped to get my car to the TRF party this weekend, but by last night,
I knew that idea was all but practical. I decided to try to get the car
running so I could use it for my final weeks of summer before going back to
school. Thanks to the listers who responded to my carb and alternator
questions. If you read my other post about the ignition warning lights,
you'll see that I was enlightened to the problem facing my car. Tomorrow I
go out hunting for a lifetime warranty alternator at a good price.
But today I tackled the carbs. Following some advice given here (You guys &
gals are indispensable!), I pulled my carbs and attempted to reset my float
clearances. I ran into a problem when trying to identify which are of the
float to measure from on my HIF-4's. The Haynes diagram just doesn't look
right when compared to my carb's floats. Can anyone describe to me exactly
where, on the floats from a '74 HIF-4, I need to measure my float valve
clearance?
Anyway, I took a WAG and set the tolerance. I reassembled the carbs, and
set them both to a standard point. I set the choke and tried to start the
car. Nothing. So, I tried richening the mixture on each carb a flat at a
time, then I tried to start the car. More nothing. I managed to spend
about an hour repeating this process until I finally hit the full rich
mixture. I pulled the plugs, cleaned them, checked for spark, and reversed
the process - one flat lean per carb until I hit full lean. The car still
had not sputtered or even gave an indication that it desired to start.
Today's questions for the class: The manual states to set the jet so it's
level with the bridge, then lean (or richen - I forgot) the mixture 2 1/2
turns. Should I choke the car during this initial setup? What should I do
with the idle screws? I have these set at about 1/2 of their total travel.
Lastly, what about those funny fast idle screws, the ones that sit to the
inside and below the idle screws? Should I even touch them?
For tomorrow I plan on pulling the alternator, and if I have time, play with
the carbs. I guess I'll pull them again to attempt to reset the float valve
clearance. One good thing - I found a vacuum hose unplugged and promptly
fixed it.
Michael S. Lishego
http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Speedway/3706/
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