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I have been reading plugs wrong all my life. I have found several web sites about reading plugs and have learned quite a bit. Thanks, Phil. If you hadn't posted your response I would have continued to "read" plugs looking for soot up high on the insulator.
The reason I pulled the plugs in the first place was that I had screwed-up the jet positions while fiddling around trying to ease an overly rich idle. Fuel consumption was way up (25MPG -vs- 28MPG before I played with the jets). Acceleration from a stop would cause the carbs to "hunt" with power delivery coming in waves. And at cruise, there was an occasional miss. The only thing I had done was move the jets so I assumed that was the problem.
I started over and adjusted the carbs properly. I had them well balanced with a correct mix at idle. I took it out for a test drive. The problems were not resolved. It was marginally better everywhere but the on-off-on power delivery problem was still there.
I checked my adjustments again but found them to be spot on. Then I checked the oil in the dampers. There was "plenty" of oil but the book says to cover the damper piston about 1/4" with oil. So I did. It only required four or five drops of oil but what a difference in behavior. For the first time in weeks the car pulls cleanly from idle. Even heavy loads (full throttle in 3rd gear from 15MPH) produced an unimpressive but steady and constant acceleration.
I had no idea that oil level is that critical but it did make a huge difference. It had been about 8000 miles since I had topped off the oil the carbs. I will do it at the first signs of flutter from now on.
--
Mr. Shannon DeWolfe -- (I've taken to using Mr. because my name tends to mislead folks on the WWW. I am a 51 year old fat man ;-) -- KD5QBL
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