Mark Maras

I loved Westwood too. Down that short hill, pulling multi G forces at the bottom was the most fun for me. Lap after lap, going down that hill, I kept believing I could enter that left hander faster than the previous lap. That theory worked well for a few laps until I went off on the left turn exit. Regretfully, I never felt like I mastered that off camber downhill right hander. I loved tracks with elevation changes.

Submerge it in CLR for 24 - 48 hours (Thanks @wheee!). It will come out looking nearly pristine.

A good many years ago I was headed up I-5 (relatively flat section) going a good 75ish mph when suddenly my 71 240 slowed to 45 mph. It was running smooth and being a few miles from my folks house I decided to try a few things, I pulled the choke, no change. Kicked in the clutch and revved it to 6 grand. Let the clutch out and it would not go faster than 45. Shifted into third, no change. Shifted into second, no change. Got to my folks house doing 45mph and I told my Dad (an old school logger) about my car woes. He kind of chuckled and said the engine wasn't getting enough fuel. I countered with the damn thing will rev to six grand but then he explained an engine under a load consumes more fuel and it won't go any faster , no matter what gear I was in because it only had enough fuel to pull the load that speed. It would rev fine because there was no load. Our temporary solution was remove to the underhood fuel filter and blow it out in reverse flow direction. I drove it home the next day (75ish) and had no trouble. Replaced the old filter after that and never experienced the problem again.

The major concern at this time is the float levels. I'd work on that first. The needle installation looks OK.

I agree. Any of the three ways are a piece of cake compared to removing and replacing those parts on most cars.

He won't be the first Gov. official to make a one way trip to Walter Reed.

Correct, 1 turn = 360`. I'm not sure what you want to do to one needle. The piston drop and lift test seems to have confirmed the needles aren't scrubbing the nozzle ports. Just looked again. I think I see what you mean. The top (base) of the needle looks like someone wrestled it out of the piston with new sharp pliers. It also appears to be bent or is that just my eyes? I don't believe there's a good reason to hook up the choke cables if you don't need the choke but that could be a too rich symptom. The piece of flat bar linkage that pulls the nozzles down needs to be installed.

An 8" rod is impressive. Perhaps we've discovered the reason for no pics.

Sounds pretty good. Did you check the float bowl fuel levels and how many turns down are the nozzles?

Pics or it didn't happen.

The main function of the choke cables is to pull the nozzles down, richening the mixture but the linkage also opens the butterflies a bit. That allows more air into the mixture and raises the idle RPMs. The nozzles shouldn't stick. Try lubing them first if that doesn't work check the nozzle linkage alignment. You may have to twist the linkage (circled in red, above) to be sure the mating surfaces on each end are parallel to their attachment points.

Great, it would seem the needles, pistons and domes are in good shape. Earlier you mentioned the choke not working on one carb.There are a couple of things that will cause the nozzle to bind up. The fuel hose to the nozzle needs to be ultra flexible. Ztherapy sells silicone hoses. The other problem can be the linkage that pulls the nozzle down and pushes it up. Over time, the flat-bar linkage can warp a bit causing the nozzle to bind up. The carb will have to be removed to check the linkage alignment. Check to see that both ends of the linkage are parallel to their mounting surfaces and lube the outer surface of the nozzles before assembly. Another thing to check is the float levels. The float level is the primary mixture adjustment. You'll definitely need a Uni Syn for balancing the carbs.

No need for lube. The outer diameter of the piston isn't supposed to touch the inside of the dome. The chrome tube in the center of the piston that holds oil should have a bit of oil on the outside.

Clean everything carefully with lacquer thinner and raise the nozzles to the top (usually up 2 1/2 turns?). Install the domes and pistons without oil and without the shock absorber "jiggly bits". Verify both pistons bottomed out, then lift them slowly to their top positions and let them fall. The stroke of the pistons should be smooth (no resistance) from bottom to top and top to bottom and nearly identical in drop time. If you encounter resistance at the bottom of the stroke, lower the nozzles to their original height (2 1/2 turns down) and perform the drop test again to see if the resistance changes.

If I didn't want to spend big bucks for a starter, I'd buy the one with the best warranty.

I'd use it if I couldn't find a replacement. One could also TIG weld the damage. I seem to remember Cliff @siteunseen using cheap oven cleaner on a trans, at one time, and reporting it worked very well.

The fires, for the most part, are still burning but not spreading rapidly like they were in the high winds. There will be plenty of work to be done when they're all out. Hwy. 22, between Salem and Sisters has over 10,000 trees that have to be dealt with, due to fire damage and unstable hillsides, before the hwy. opens.

Nope, not the "Yellow death". Jim is correct, it's the 8008 adhesive. Good tip on the 3M adhesive remover. I've never tried that.

The unknown black areas are or were undoubtedly rust. The black may be from a previous rust conversion using something like phosphoric acid.

Great news, the rain cleared most of the smoke out. Kinda weird to see Portlanders celebrating rain though. It may be a once in a lifetime event.

I prefer 3M Weatherstrip Adhesive. Available at O'Reilly.

Thunderstorms and rain last night. That should put the hurt on the fires and scrub some of the smoke from the air.

Visibility is still around 1/4 mile here. We're supposed to get some relief from it in a day to a day and a half and then a bit of rain that should clear more smoke out. Until then, it's N95s.

Portland. We're scrambling around here. As of this morning, more than 500,000 have evacuated their homes in Oregon. That's 1/10th of the population and most of those are on the west side of the state. Several small towns have burned to the ground and now the fires are heading towards larger towns. Molalla and Oregon City have been evacuated. One half mile visibility due to smoke yesterday. About the same today. The smoke is so dense you can look at the sun at noon without squinting. It's just a red dot in a dirty orange sky. The smoke goes up to around 10,000' and prevents fire fighting air drops from being used and firefighters on the ground from finding the fires. Rescue vehicles can't get to some areas. Yesterday they pulled ALL the firefighters back in to regroup and attack again. As of this morning none of the fires around Portland are contained. Parking lots are full of RVs and tents here in town. Hotels, Motels are full and we still have Covid-19 to deal with. We could use your prayers folks.

The metal FelPro gasket is my choice. Have you considered trying to straighten the warped flange? An oxy-acetylene torch, hammer and dolly would probably get it close enough to seal.