Won't start

I've seen choke pushrods goobered up worse than yours; sometimes they're so badly bent and twisted that it's best just to replace. Your bimetallic thermostat spring (inside the box on the manifold) could still be faulty, but maybe not. Here's the problem: to adjust it, you need to remove the box from the manifold, and on a '70-'72 setup like this that means disturbing a gasket junction that's sure to leak on reassembly unless you use a new gasket, and that gasket isn't available any more. So probably best to see if you can get the choke to work correctly by adjusting the pull-off. If not, get a № 1231 Electric choke kit and install that (you'll still have to deal with the gasket junction unless you install a '73-up exhaust manifold, which is the only type presently available new).