Actually, my old one had issues. There was a lot of play in the body around the throttle shaft and the hole where the fuel inlet was so loose it was getting harder to get anything to screw in there without it leaking. Plus it used to have an automatic choke (the mounting is visible on the side of the carb) but someone converted it to a manual choke. I got to thinking I know nothing about this carb. This truck was so jerry rigged when I got it 11 years ago. Hell, someone used a lamp cord to wire the tail lights. I know the things I mentioned can be fixed but my thinking was to start off with something that is known to be good. I know it's frowned on here but that was my thinking. The choke on the old one stopped working completely and this one does work, so there's that. I was getting a new one regardless.
Anyway, since my last post, I checked the timing and adjusted it so that it is a few degrees BTC, which is where I've been told it should be and where I've always kept it. It runs better, but it's rough, seems to speed up and slow down on its own, and spews out a lot of rich smoke. There's a huge black spot on the pavement under my tail pipe. Adjusted the idle mixture and speed, but there's not a whole lot of improvement. I didn't know where to go next on the ignition front without further advice, so I tested the fuel pump. I did Hotrod Lincoln's suggested test. It pumps just shy of a pint of gasoline in 30 seconds of running. On the pressure test, it registered about 4.5. But when I shut the engine off, the needle never went back to zero as it is apparently supposed to according to HRL's description of the test. I waited several minutes. The needle didn't go back to zero until I disconnected the hose. So i thought I'd mention that, anyway. I had to call it quits for the day so did not get to the vacuum part of the test. Compression test and firing voltage test will be next.
