Well, we are done. I am amazed at the throttle response and new acceleration with the 4-bbl carb. Now getting to this point was a serious pain in the ass. As I said above, I have never delved into doing a carb adjustment or rebuild. This was quite an experience. I will start at the top.
So we got the carb on, I am using a snythetic 1" spacer with a PCV nipple on the rear. I used the gaskets that came with it. MISTAKE. We fired up the carb, and it was running super lean, and could not get it adjusted, so we suspected vacuum leak. We had one at the very front. Used the Carb Cleaner and Water tricks to diagnose. Fortunately my neighbor works on his own cars and boats, and has a lot of experience with Carburetors. So we pulled the carb, (#1), did some checking on the leveling of the carb, the spacer, and the intake. No issues there. Put it back on, same issue. (#2, #3 removals) We ended up using the gaskets out of the rebuild kit (More on the $#%#$%# Rebuild Kit in a minute). Once we got the gaskets fitted, used a bit of grease as a helper, the carb had no more leak. Still have a little bit of a leak at the new throttle rod, which has a little bit of play but can live with it.
Still having problems with the adjustment once we get this fixed, seems there is a lot of play in the choke arm going to the pump diaphragm. So working on that. Then we realize I have the choke spring set up backwards when I put it back together. I should have studied the 200+ photos better. So remove carb (#4), spend about an hour finally getting it right (took it on and off 4-5 times), and also find I have not peened the pump cover very flat, and there was a leak there as well. Take it apart, flatten it well, and put it back on.
Sometime during this process, I must have allowed the check ball from the pump to dislodge, and it was not in place. So fuel dumping again. Take carb off again (#5), fix this, put back on. Mind you we are in 106 degree heat in Arizona, so not as much fun.
Now we start working on adjustment, and we are all of a sudden way too rich. I mean dumping black smoke. So we open up the carb, and the primary bowl is full to the top. The float needle will not close all the way. The secondary is fine, but the primary will not close, no matter what the adjustment. So I use the old needle and seat, which on this antique is a check ball assembly. Fixed.
Put Carb back on, and still too rich, I mean no way we can adjust. Take the top off, and now we can watch the primary bowl draining when ignition is off. What the hell? We take the carb off (#6), check for leaks, cracks, nothing. Put it back on. Same issue. I take the Power / Economizer Valve off, and i have two gaskets. WTF? Thats on me. We put it back on, put the carb back on, same problem. Take the carb off (#7), and find the Power / Economizer valve is leaking like crazy. The whole assembly is full of fuel. So the diaphragm is toast.
Go to O'Reillys, get a new Power / Economizer valve, a 6.5, since the one in the kit was a 5.5, and buttoned it up . Put everything back together, and fired it up. Did the Idle mixture to about 2 1/2, got the idle and fast idle adjusted. It still has a bit of a rough idle, but holy cow, I am super happy with the new power this vehicle now has. With only a 302 in it, it does have some giddy up, way more than before, especially with the kickdown and throttle linkage binding up being fixed. .