Ok, I found the problem. Thanks very much for the replies. Jethro, the number on the manifold is '3838922 GM'. What's the difference between low rise and mine? How would it make a difference, I mean. JHA- The carb is free. It's been lubed so many times in the last year while I was trying to free up my heat riser valve, it's like snot on a glass door knob. But here's the problem, and I was aware that it was here, but until I installed the new spring and mounting tab, it was never really a problem. I'm now thinking that whoever rigged up the last return spring must have been trying to fix this severely ignorant problem.
I'm not sure if the flange on the exhaust pipe was put on by my (former) muffler guy, or if he just transferred it from the old one, but it's absolutely an error I need to fix as soon as I can. The flange is for something a lot bigger than my manifold flange, so now that the spring is heading downward instead of back to the firewall (actually, more like down to the pedal assembly area) it's not bringing the rod away from the flange, which is causing some serious friction at that point. I guess it was still too close before the spring change, because I've had occasional problems with it for years. I'm now thinking that this all started when I had the new exhaust put on not long after I bought it. Now that I think about it, it was never a problem when I bought it and for the few months I had it before I had a new exhaust put on it. So for all these years I've been fighting a problem that the muffler shop handed me. And I can't even go back and complain. The guy retired last year and sold his shop. Oh well, at least it's fixable and I can quit the pedal kicking soon. Thanks a lot, fella's, for the suggestions. Jethro, I'd still like to hear about that manifold, though. Thanks again, you guys. Lee
