Ah, you might just need to adjust your choke to a Summer position.

 

 

In electric chokes there is typically a bimetal spring (like an old thermosat) housed in what looks like a really big black bottle cap. This spring controls where the choke plate begins at cold startup and slowly opens as it heats up via 12v current. If you loosen the retainer around the black choke cap, you can rotate it, increasing or decreasing the initial tension of the spring on the choke plate linkage. You should see the choke plate open or close as you do this, assuming all the pieces are there and nothing is stuck. The choke plate should only be cracked open slightly at first in most cases. There are also manual chokes without a spring and thermal chokes which are usually warmed by a small pipe connected to the intake manifold. You can get better info from the people here if you can provide pictures or numbers off the carburetor. Good luck!


PS. You might be flooding a bit if your choke is completely closed and you're seeing white smoke out the top. The smaller the gap, the richer it starts, the wider (more air) the leaner it starts, so closed choke will be really rich.

 

 

 

Have you adjusted the idle mixture screws? It's that or the choke for idle. Try going clockwise until they are closed all the way, then come back open 1 1/2 turns on both screws. Then try to fine tune it from there.
Also, when was the last time your carb was taken apart for cleaning/new gaskets, etc? You could have a stuck float, or a saturated float that doesn't float anymore.... My truck had a stuck float when I got it and flooded constantly until I found the problem. It still sounds like you're running too rich, especially since you mentioned very black plugs. If you rebuild/tune the carb and it still doesn't behave, then your problem may be ignition or timing related. It doesn't cost anything to check your grounds..

 

 

Have you checked for a vacuum leak? This is the issue I am having with my truck. My leak is at the base of the carb.

 

Bingo. Any vacuum leaks, even very slight, whether intake manifold, carb base, throttle shaft or wherever will make tuning idle mixture impossible. Engine may ping, it leans things out.

Also make sure ignition timing is straight. Retarded ignition timing will also reduce manifold vacuum. A strong manifold vacuum signal through the carburetor idle circuit is what makes it work, there simply isn't enough air moving through a carburetor at idle otherwise. Though it's called the idle circuit, it is in play well into the transition zone, where most driving is done.

 

That's a good suggestion. You can spray a little wd-40 or carb cleaner around the base of the carb. If the idle changes, then you probably have a leak. You could also try closing other vacuum connections to isolate a bad hose or vacuum driven part. At least do this before you go and rebuild the carb. Did you also check the resistance across your coil and plug wires? You could have a weak coil or something not grounded well. If I were in your shoes it would probably be a little bit of all-of-the-above.

 

 

 

Probably so. After settin' all winter with no activity you're bound to have fuel issues - the junk gas we have will turn to jell-o in a month of no usage - and the carb gasket will dry out.
Try a new gasket and check for more vacuum/fuel leaks....around the throttle shaft, carb base, etc.

Then run that puppy hard......