As a matter of fact I have. Not to be rude. (LOL). I think your giving it too much credit at idle. Does he have a carb cam with lots of overlap? Is he still running the FI cam? Where did you read backfiring with raw fuel coming out the exhaust?

Lets wait until he tells us if he has spark on the cylinder. If he does or doesn't will settle the matter.

On a side note we found he was messing with the air bypass not the idle mixture screw. Did he blow out the air bypass and not the idle jet? If so I would suggest blowing out the idle jet this time and see what happens.

As I mentioned earlier a bent shaft would cause one high and 3 low not one low and 3 high. The bent shaft would keep one butterly open when the other 3 bottomed out.

he is reading a 5 on three cylinders and a 3 on one.
that is a very small difference that the lack of a spark would certainly cause.

No spark, no explosion, less draw and less vacuum during the intake stroke (by the overlap of the exhaust port)

Spitting a sputtering could easily be raw fuel in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"We" did not figure out which screws he was adjusting...


Rich


Rich

Nice catch on the air bypass screws Rich! You da man! Ok, lets get back to helping Nycchef.

What I read was that you have low flow on one barrel with no change after pulling a plug wire and adjusting the mixture screw. I guess I'm missing the spitting, sputtering and backfiring part. After working with the IDF for years I always jump to the carb when an engine experiences problems that mimic known carb issues. That's my mistake. It's just when I adjust a mixture screw and pull a plug wire and there is no change it screams plugged idle jet to me. I glaze over the the simple fact it might be a fouled plug or bad wire. It could very well be an ignition issue.

Well we are helping Nycchef..( and probably a lot more people).....1) in YOUR experience ....the butterfly shaft bends..etc....WHAT is more likely to bend...1) the STEEL BUTTER-FLY SHAFT...OR 2) the BRONZE BUTTERFLY....and when it bends, is it ALWAYS BENT, whereby MORE AIRFLOW occurs in that carburator bore, cylinder???......and ....misalignment can also occur when the butterfly shaft BEARINGS ,(take a ) through age, useage,and accumulation of crud.....Take a hard look at the photograph of the carburator, NYCCHEF showed us....looks a little crusty to me with , a redish tone,from fuel, and a generall appearance of long term useage.....and note the rubber fuel line has NO clamp. ...AND....an AIR LEAK caused by a carburator base gasket,s... :stromberg... can and will contribute to these problem,s...remove and rebuild....EVEN IF ITS an ignition problem....then this engine really could run at it,s potential. :THE END... .

...and ...look at the AIR filter.(looks filthy to me)..and the carb hold down NUTS...whats missing?... the END again.

hey guys just to clarify. i have blown out and cleaned everything on the carbs, the air filters are brand new (came with the linkage) and those aren't pics of my carbs. picking up new wires tomorrow. sunday i'll put em in and we'll see. i am truly moved by the amount of time and patience everyone has displayed. as always dinner is free at my restaraunt fior 914 victims

I want to see you in CT....sounds like you are gonna bail out...

Rich

Hey, I might have a little spare time next week in which I can come over. Depending on family wellness (the little one is sick).

I'll give you a call to see what works.

I've seen bent shafts, bent butterflies and worn out bearings that screw up the shaft. In all the cases I've seen it results in one or both bores flowing more. Let me put it another way. When the butterfly works as designed it closes tight. You can't get it closed any tighter. If it's not perfect through misalignment or bending or wear it won't close tight. This results in more flow.

To bend a butterfly you need to jam something into it. Like a screwdriver. Usually the guy knows he bent it when he does that. You can bend a shaft by having it froze up. A guy then sprays the snot out of it with WD40 and muscles it back and forth to free it up. He puts a twist in the shaft and doesn't know it.

Are these new or used carbs? If you think a throttle shaft is leaking air you can glob some grease around it and the lean condition would temporarily improve.

One thing I forgot to put in my carb tuning post is to check the accelerator pump volume, and make sure they are all equal.

used. how do you check the accelerator volume?

I'm at work and don't have time to read over the whole thread but the first pic you posted shows a fuel line with no clamp. Don't forget to put a clamp on that line or you won't be worrying about synching carbs anymore.

Measure cc's per barrel per stroke. That's not your problem though. You don't have acceleration issues. If you want to do a quick and easy check just open the butterfly with the engine off. Check that you have equal and even fuel streams coming from your pump jets.

those ain't my carbs

here's todays bad news. i replaced the plug wires. cleaned and regapped the plugs, new dizzy cap, have spark on all 4 cylinders, timing is on, dwell around 48, blew out all the circuits and jets on both carbs, accelerator pump seems to be squirted the same on both carbs switched the carbs from one side to another. same problem ,same barrel. still does not stutter when i remove the #2 wire. no adjustment on the carbs has any effect, 2 new bits of info. when i cover the other 3 barrels with my hand the engine starts to stall, when i cover #2 it races a little then starts to stall. i looked into the barrels after i turn the car off. i see fog in all barrels except #2. #2 is clear. what am i missing?

neil here are the compression #
#1 150
#2 145
#3 145
#4 160
engine cold throttle open

So you have the same problem on #2 regardless of carb?

Recheck your valve adjustment, with the engine stone cold.

.k think i got it. tore it down to the manifolds. took off the cheap cb performance cardboard gaskets they sold me. put the old rubber ones back on, a healthy dose of gasket sealer and it seems to be o.k. 7 psi all round , no popping and the engine stutters when i pull the #2 plyug. i cannot be less impressed with cb performance.thank you all. lets see if it lasts

Nice find, Rich - like I said on the phone - it was a crappy gasket that got me also!

Nice!

good job!!

Nice find, Rich - like I said on the phone - it was a crappy gasket that got me also!
[/quote]
thanks neil if you hadn't told me to switch the carbs i wouldn't have caught it

Ok enough already Chef, it will be winter soon, Bout time we hear - Stick a fork in it it's done......

Glad you figured it out.

..read post 55 again. .

yes, for the love of pete, that was my pic from when I was doing a mockup... it just happened to show the screws I was talking about in the post...

there IS a clamp on the carb now.

my webers are OLD, ancient, I get it, but they work perfectly and the gaskets on mine are fine... dismount.

who cares about your carbs...can't think about much else after glancing at your avatar...

please lets let this thread fade away. sorry wayne did not mean to pull you into the fray

it's no sweat, my carbs are just getting badmouthed, if theyhear it, they will get a complex, and god knows I can't afford therapy for my fuel system.