Choke thermostat /RAGE

To update, we first checked the Holley 1920 he had on the car. It looked fairly new, with maybe a rebuilder's label. A shot of starter fluid sped up and smoothed the idle, as did closing the choke. The idle adjustment was full out. The engine slowed down and shook in D. Seemed lean, just like my 69 slant always ran until I finally got a good carb. We put on the 1st Holley 1920 I had, and didn't seem any better. That one looked OK, but the idle screw seemed to stick too much into the bore. We then tried the almost new looking Holley 1920 I recently got at Ecology in SoCal. It still had the plastic cap on the idle screw to limit movement. It idled fine in D, though not as smooth as my 69 slant with its final carb, nor my 64 slant w/ a BBS. Not much adjustment was allowed on the screw and it seemed slightly better at the max rich. A shot of starter fluid didn't change the idle and closing the choke seemed to make it slow down, so seemed like the mixture was fine. He bought that one. I have never used either carb and don't know their histories.

However, the smooth idle went away later after a test drive. I originally checked the timing as 10 deg BTDC, which is fine. When I tried again, my clamp-on timing light would only flash occasionally on #1, but flashed OK on #2. I put an in-line spark lamp on #1 and the flashes seemed dim. The dwell was a bit high at 55 deg. I measured ~6 V at the coil (running), when should be ~8 V (recall). Looks like he followed thru on replacing the points and checking the ignition wiring. I suggested keeping an eye out for an electronic distributor. Re-routing and/or insulating the fuel line across the engine might be needed for those 110 F summer days in Sacramento.