Have my Holley one barrel carb waaaay out of whack

[Pete W]

I am trying to adjust the carb on my 1961 Comet with a 144 and I really screwed it up. I can't even get the car to start now. I first treid to adjust the slaow idle to 525 rpm like the manual says but that is much to slow. The car stalls out. If I turn the slow idle screw in and set it at about 700/800 and it runs better. I shut of the car and crank it up again and it rpm's at about 500 , barley hanging on. The fast idle is alway's stable at 1600 rpms as the manual states.

Things started to go really South when I adjusted the fuel mixture. The manual says at a starting point back off 1.5 turns and go in from there until it leans out and then you back off a bit until it runs smooth. I did that and it worked until I restated the car and the slow idle rpm's dropped and I kept trying to readjust.

I know this is hard to understand because I can't explain myself very well but I'm at the piont now wear I cannot get the car to idle no matter what I do.

 

[pedal2themetal45]

HI pete
OK first off are you adjusting the righ screws??
There is most likely 3 screws to adjust ... one for fast idle ,, one for curb idls , and one for the mixture..
Fast Idle screw is accesed from the drivers side of the carb..
curb idle is accessed for the passanger side of the carb..
Mixture is in the base plate of the carb on about a 45* angle at the passanger side back close to the curb idle screw..

Mixture screw 1 1/2 turns out to start... and get warmed up.... also you may want to screw in the curb ilde screw some just to make sure its has a fast enough idle once the fast idle comes off..
Once its warmed up burp the throtal to get it off fast idle.. hopefully the curb idle is fast enough to keep it idleing. If you want you can set the curb idle screw in to almost the same as the fast idle just to make sure its going to idle and then go down from there to 750 or so...
Once you've acheved this adjust the mixture screw to smothest idle. You may have to do this a couple of times turn the mixture screw and readjusting the idle screw to keep the 750 idle. Then turn the mixture screw in just enough to hear the idle start to drop ( that is called a lean drop.)
IF YOU HAVE AN AUTOMATIC THE FINAL ADJUSTMENTS SHOULD BE DONE IN DRIVE WITH THE PARK BRAKE ON.. THE FINAL IDLE SHOULD BE ABOUT 650 IN DRIVE WITH AN AUTOMATIC. OR 650 IN NUTRAL WIHT A MANULE TRANNY
hope this helps.
tim

 

[jamyers]

Assuming you're turning the right screws, it sounds like you've got some dirt/trash in the carb.

Easy to fix, carb kits are available and these carbs are very simple to take apart, clean, and put back together.