Hey Everybody, a quick status update. I found several vacuum leaks that were contributing to my engine quitting on me when driving. The first was a split rubber hose on the vacuum gauge itself! I had the gauge mounted on the radiator so I could see it when working on the engine and had never removed it. It's gone now.... Second leak was around the rearmost intake runner, where it mounts to the head. I was able to tighten the manifold mounting bolts and eliminate that leak. However, the engine still didn't run well. I did some reading of old posts and convinced myself that the Rochester BC had developed a vacuum leak. Since I already had a Carter YF2100 in reserve, I decided to do a swap. I replaced the gaskets and pump and then installed it. It does bolt straight onto the intake, but the accelerator rod from the original carburetor didn't align with the Carter. So, back to me trying to make my hands bend a rod in the shape that my brain says it needs to be.... What an exercise in futility! Let's just say it took me waay more time to do than it'll take any of you. However, it is now done. I set the carburetor settings per the instructions and fired the truck up. Moving from an automatic choke to a manual one is a learning experience. Fine tuning both the fast idle and normal idle is proving to also be a challenge. I got a little closer to correct today, but the engine is still running rough. I'm thinking that the timing may need to be adjusted with the new carburetor. I won't touch that until I get the best tune that I can on the carburetor. Anyway, I feel confident that the new carburetor is an improvement over the original style Rochester. Time will tell. One last note...when I took the Rochester off the engine, I found streaks of dried fuel running down from the airhorn screw holes that were on the valve cover side. I'm guessing if fuel could somehow get out, air could get in.
