Not having been able to solve the problem yet I've removed the carbs and plan on giving them a good cleaning and inspection inside and out,check throttle plate shafts, jets, etc for wear,check the floats and solder the throttle valves shut as recommended. I'll then do the inital setting per the Hayne's amnual and go from there. Any warnings or advice would be appreciated. This is on a car with 83K original miles by the way, doesn't look as though the carbs have been touched too much, certainly not rebuilt or dismantled before as far as I can tell.
Also, dismantled the distributor, claeaned it up, oiled etc. I did notice the vacuum advance arm only moves about an 1/8" or so, is this normal? Seems like it would move more. I gave the rotor a light twist and it snapped back, dwell is about 59, timing at 10 degrees. Only thing I'm not sure of is if I give the rotor a harder twist it does seem to get caught up a bit, not snapping back so much, not sure what I'm doing there. Anyway, I'll post my results after I get the carbs back on, hopefully with problem solved.