Soggy, I just got back from fiddling with the vacuum gage. After starting and closing the choke, it was idling close to 600 rpm, and had some slight bumping, but when I adjusted it down to 550 rpm, it was smooth and holding 21hg with no noticeable movement on the vac gauge. When I increased throttle and held it at constant high rpm (tested several different rpms), the engine had noticeable bumpping and had corresponding dips in the vacuum gage. The dips were in about the 1hg range, so they weren't big. Is that simply an ignition related misfire and not a mechanical thing? As noted before everything except the cap and dizzy are new. When I replaced the wires, I did not get the solid core set, so I'm not sure if that affects anything.
Looking at my counterweight, I think she might be half cocked...? (see pic) I tried the heat up the engine and douse the riser valve with penetrating oil again with no luck tonight. Even after hitting it with penetrating oil, once it is heated up, I can't even feel the slight lateral movement that I get when it is cold. Will try the torch thing this weekend and if that doesn't work, I may be learning about removing and installing the manifolds. It will be a good opportunity to paint them anyhow.
I like HRL's idea of splitting the original in two, and the pics of the modified original with the block off look pretty nice.
