Right hand carb

I took the lid off the left hand carb after running it up to where it was stuttering, let it stutter for a while and
then killed it by pulling the coil 15+ wire. With the lid off I could see that the float level was good. The theory was that the check valve was stuck closed or the float was stuck up (previously stuck down) and the carb was being starved for gas. This wasn't the case. The level was good and the check valve was operating freely.

So I turned my attention to the other carb. I removed that one and disassembled it. I found nothing unusual nor any clogged jets. I put it back together without replacing any part--although the accelerator pump skirts on both carbs are a bit ragged. The kits I used for last winter's rebuild were not the variety that had the accelerator pumps. You can't get them separately, so that meanss new kits. Which is fine; now that I've had them apart a couple of times, I'll need some rebuild kits in the spares. I didn't measure acclerator pump output, which is probably the great sin of the weekend.

Reassembling I put the new phenolic block in, matching the other side. I used blue locktite on the new manifold studs, no gasket glue (perhaps a mistake; though isn't there an old saw about using tack where it is in wet contact and not if it is air? An intake manifold would be...which? Atomized wet?). The addition of the block raised the carb height about 1/2" (didn't measure the block thickness--gotta remember those details), which changed the necessary length of the down-link from the throttle crossbar linkage.

The carb came up to the crossbar, so the link had to be shorter by that same 1/2". The linkage has a semi-heim joint at each end. It is really a ball-and-cup affair; a heim joint has a through hole for a bolt. The joints are threaded onto a rod, typically with a backing stop-nut. In this case, the rod had a stop nut welded on at the base of the threads at one end. The other end was threaded longer, but the joint's internal threads bottomed-out before the correct length could be achieved. Attempts at switching sides, going to the parts box for other joints of different body length (some shorter but none longer) didn't yield a good result. So out comes mister cut-off disk on the Dremel. The amount of thread to cut off was determined casually; I made the linkage as short as possible, put it on at one end and eyeballed how far away the other cup was with no tension on the rod (any tension on the rod can cause the accelerator linkage on the carb base to move--and an even ever so slightl opening of the butterflies can play havoc with idle response. The linkage must be against the screw stop on the carb body at rest. I added two tread turns in my head to my eyeball measure to give some additional play, cut that number of turns off the rod, dressed the edge and without some small difficulty started the cup joint back onto the rod. The rods are reverse threaded at one end. as are their matched cup joints: this allows turning of the rod while attached to the linkage to lengthen or shorten the throw in small amounts--remember the nut welded to the rod? On a rainy day I need to go through the cup joint collection in the parts bin and sort them by right-hand-thread and left-hand-thread. Some white lihium grease in the joint cups and reassembly was a hand press-fit.