I rebuilt the carb, put in new plugs, replaced the fuel filter and adjusted the crap out of the air flow and idler bolts. Here's what it's doing, first, it is having serious issues idling, sometimes it seems to idle so-so(around 1100 rpm) then it will drop to 500 and sputter and die. It stays strong with the throttle open, but has no power, about 10 seconds to redline it in neutral. It seems to be running rich(backfires, smell, etc) anddraining the carb dry resulting in the enginge dying. So, I'm against a wall. I've heard stories of a fabled sensor that reads and helps control the mixture in the engine/carb, but I can't seem to figure it out. Anyone help please???

 

They are famous for clogging converters. There are 3 so unbolt the first one and run it or pull it down and look inside. Check the big vacuum hose behind the intake on the passenger side for a burn hole/leak.The shutter valves are common to go bad also. On the side of the carb where the fuel lines go in and T is a fuel filter screen that can clog if you did not take it apart and clean it it could be clogged.

 

I will do that, though I am unsure as to that being the case. So far I have a number of suggestions takling about floater adjustments. When I rebuilt and dipped the carb, I noticed that the difference between the floats seating against the spring versus the stopper was less than a 1/2 in, but I didn't want to adjust them since I am assuming noone else has ever touched the carb. However, in the end, I did readjust them, though it was dark and so I cannot be sure if they are accurate. Anyway, I've had a few carbnuts tell me that if the floats sit too high, flooding, etc occurs which may lead to the rough idle and if they sit too low then they don't know how far to open up to allow flow, which, to me(not saying much, I haven't touched a carb since I was a kid) says that they may be hitting the bottom of the carb and not fully closing the valve when full. I don't know, but I will check the lines you mentioned, as it stands I am seriously considering selling this one and waiting until I can better afford this much unexpected difficulty. When we first looked at the car, we were certain it was as simple as the carb, but if these checks and adjustments don't show any sign of getting closer, I may have to sell it.

 

16mm amd 52mm are the float adjustments with the gasket on the airhorn.

 

Thanks, I'm curious though, I just got the factory carb manual from sterling, apparently this has a throttle sensor, would that be capable of throwing the carb so out of wack that it has no power and all the problems? Where it looks like the sensor should be in the manual, I'm failry certain I just have a harness going nowhere.

 

It should have a TPS. Black plastic about 3 inchs long and cylindrical.

 

Found it... and it's shot.... fun. Let me see if I have this straight though, hopefully I won't sound like an idiot.
So, the car is running rich in idle and flooding itself out or running around 2000 rpm with the choke, which could be attributed to the floats being maladjusted. But that does not explain why the carb dries up when in gear. What does(in my mind) would be that the TPS tells the fuel system to pump the fuel in faster according to the float position to accomodate for the increase in power needs, but since the TPS is faulted, the system is flowing the fuel in slowly, though it is allowing too much into the chambers. The fact that the speed of the fuel flow is low(meant for an idle) would explain why it has no power when being revved in neutral and why it dries up in gear, the system has no clue where the throttle is at and so has no idea how quickly to refill the chambers.
In conclusion, if I replace the TPS, in theory, the engine should be running rich and floosding no matter the rpm or amount of power being pushed.
How far off might I be, I am open for constructive criticism.

 

The TPS main function is for the shutter valve but there is a solonoid it kicks in for heavy accel. I doubt that would cause what you describe though. There is a slow fuel cut solonoid for idle and that is a 2 wire solonoid and the other has 1 wire.