Welcome back.

I thought it was about time to update this topic - and other partially associated ones. I trust that most of you had a good Holiday season and 2017 will only improve. I am still dealing with some pesky health issues and, since Signet insurance expired on Nov. 30th., I have not been driving.
I am sure that many Allpar members along the entire west coast can concur that this has (so-far) been a worse than usual winter - particularly noticeable in bigger centers like Portland, Seattle and Vancouver. Here where I am the temp. this morning was down to -25 c. or
-13 f. likely the coldest we've seen in at least past 5 years.
Looking forward to more 'normal' westerly flow beginning next week. But, that could be temporary and still much snow to get rid of and that means I probably won't be insuring car(s) again until well into Feb. Last year I started the Signet on Jan. 30 and then insured it on Feb. 6th. Roads stayed clear from Groundhog Day - on.
And, speaking of the Signet, it served me very well all summer - with only one minor 'glitch'. That was with the Holley (of course single-barrel) carb. Those of you who have had anything to do with the early four-barrel, primarily vac.-sec. Holleys, may have had issues or challenges with the low-speed or idle-feed circuit. Usually when a bigger cam with greater overlap is installed, the drop in idle vacuum affects the flow of fuel to the idle circuit. Turning the mixture screws to increase that flow can have little effect due to the small opening in the idle-feed tube. With Carter/Edelbrock, the idle-feed tubes are well out in the open - by design. However, Holley's idea was to
hide these tubes in metering blocks. Removing metering jets exposed the tips of these tubes - but no way to get to them.
Single-barrel carbs, like Model 1920, had one primary metering jet so also one metering tube. To make this long story shorter, I was driving the Signet in early August as returning from nearby lake. Well, at the destination the car ran fine and then also on the highway back. However, as soon as I entered the city and had to slow for first red light, car stalled just as if key turned off. It re-started alright but I quickly learned it would not idle. This symptom did occur in this car before so I was prepared to 'feather' the gas enough to maintain sufficient idle speed when having to stop.
But, my 'instinct' suggested to me that a piece of
dirt would be the culprit. Logical procedure therefore would be to gain access to the metering plate and try to blow out the circuit. I did this before by applying low pressure to the idle-bleed air orifice and then to the mixture opening once the screw removed. Well, once the jet, float and gasket/bowl re-installed, carb pressured-up okay and started and idled fine. I drove it soon after and got maybe four city blocks and same thing happened. It stalled at stop light and wouldn't idle. Couldn't be more 'dirt' so soon. After-all, the inside of fuel chamber was clean and I had good filter and clean, original tank. Hmm.
So. I removed all that I needed to (after draining carb) and finally the small jet. This time I also removed the metering block for closer look. Something didn't seem right. When I looked into the threaded jet opening, the bottom of the metering tube was tilted over to one side - instead of being centered. I shook the block and the tube also shook. Didn't take long to figure out that it had become dislodged from top and slipped down, therefore allowing air to enter the top access instead of thru proper bottom of tube orifice. Short of drilling out top 'disc' and removing the tube itself, only other option was to
gently pry upward at bottom of tube - so as to not damage orifice. I did this and could tell that the fit on top would be snug enough that the tube would not likely fall down any time soon. Yes, it worked perfectly and no issues for the last 3 months of driving.
A bit long for a simple repair but more of a thorough heads-up to anyone else with same carb. Remember that the two-barrel Holleys have two of these metering tubes and four-barrels have two primaries for sure and sometimes a pair in the secondaries as well. Carbs with twin primary idle tubes less prone to stalling since fuel will still flow thru the one good tube - whether due to other being loose or plugged.
Finally, this time around, for the one or two of you who are wondering about my '70 Swinger, it is totally stripped down and sitting in cold garage awaiting spring warm-up so some sand-blasting can be done. In meantime there are many parts and systems to go over and restore and/or detail. Time is not at a premium these days. Everyone have a fine rest of January.
