Update.
Turned out the cap had a bit of wet under the coil - which presumably was even wetter last night and might account for the horrific run.
At the moment the plugs blacken on idle but at 1500 RPM or more for a few seconds clean up nicely.
It's not running horrible - but I still recall my other truck running a lot better. Solid 20 inches and rock steady idle.
I find myself wondering tonight if I'm simply remembering it wrong, and after 8 years of modern EFI cars it just sounds rough because it's supposed to.
The low gauge (17inHG)and needle jitter - maybe 2 inches worth - possibly because I'm reading from the large (5/16") port right at the carb base instead of the smaller nipple on the old carb that went to the vac advance?
The main jet seat is definately larger in this carb, and the metering rod more tapered - and swapping them caused starvation at throttle.
The 1/32" of float made no difference, but I've brought it up to 13/32" seems to have helped.
Quite interestingly - the other carb which ran wonderfully from 1994-2003 as a daily was entirely missing the idle tube. Whether I lost it when I was 28 years old, or some carbs just didn't have it - dunno.
Think I'll hold off tinkering around any more as i haven't managed to stumble upon some magical setting, and focus on getting it out for a real world test drive for now.
