Month: February 2025

I rebuilt the carb a couple of years ago, but I hadn’t really done much with it aside from setting the idle and idle mixture. Based on what the plugs looked like, and the odor in the garage after I parked it, the mixture was rich. I decided to put in smaller jets to see if I could get that solved.

This carb has a metering block with replaceable jets in the primary side, and a metering plate with a fixed hole drilled in them. I wasn’t too concerned about the secondaries, and changing that would mean buying a new metering plate, or converting the plate to a metering block with jets.

There were #69 jets in the primary, which were the ones that were in it when I bought the car.

I decided to try #67 jets, and put in new plugs while I was at it.

The new jets were an improvement, but it still smelled rich. Also, there was a bog on acceleration, probably due to the smaller jets. I put on a bigger accelerator pump cam, and switched the jets down again to #65.

That change worked out great. The acceleration was smooth, no more bog. Also the engine was running smoother overall, and the garage didn’t smell after I parked the car.

I ordered a new kickdown rod to replace the broken one. I can’t find any sign of the rest of it, and it’s a pretty big piece that’s missing, so I can only assume it has been gone for quite a while. It’s not a very complicated piece, just a piece of wire with z-bends at the ends, but I didn’t have any wire that looked sturdy enough, so I just bought one.

Getting the rod threaded into the lever that engages the kickdown piston button inside the transmission was a bit of a challenge upside down under the car, but I got there eventually. There’s a clip/pin that the lever pivots on that needs to be pulled out so you can thread the lever onto the rod. Once that is done the pin needs to go back through the 2 holes on the bracket, and the two holes on the lever, while making sure the top end of the rod doesn’t slip out of the hole on top where the cable attaches.

Once the rod was installed, I connected the cable and verified that it worked smoothly from the carb end of the cable.

From there, I put on a new filter, and a new cork gasket. I tied the gasket on with some thread to hold it in place until I got some bolts started. I then tightened the pan bolts to the recommended 10-12 inch-lb torque. Note that is INCH-pounds, not foot-pounds. Big difference. I didn’t have an inch-lb torque wrench, so I bought one specifically for this job, since I wanted to be absolutely sure it was tightened properly so it wouldn’t leak. Otherwise, I’d have to take the transmission crossmember off again to get at all the pan bolts.