Time to start wading into fuel delivery and ignition systems

So.... I've had the car for a year now. I haven't had to touch anything with the carb or fuel delivery, other than when I pulled the head to replace the gasket because it was leaking oil. The car has progressively gotten worse over the period of ownership. When I first bought it the car was running nicely, idling, etc. First the idle started getting a tad rough (sounds like misses, I can feel pulses as well). The idling has gotten worse over the year. Finally over the past couple of weeks I've started feeling some of the same behavior under light load.

I'm thinking I should check the points, wires, plugs first. The plugs all looked decent when I pulled the head this spring to replace the gasket. But that was this spring. What else should I get into? I was also wondering if my carb has gone out of tune. It's a Holley 1940 replacement. The vacuum hookups are, um, nonstandard (?). I have a '65 with a '66 block. The distributor is the proper one for the year . Vacuum is ported off the manifold and goes to both the automatic transmission and the distributor. There is a vacuum source coming off the carb but it was blocked off by PO. I didn't muck with it when I first bought it because it was running and I didn't see a SCV on the 1940.

Any advice on where to start? I've been trying to read up here. I'm planning on breaking out the service manual tonight as well, but I've found YMMV there depending on the symptom, especially as it doesn't deal with the carb.

Even before you touch the carb get the dizzy correct. A bad or out of spec dizzy will act just like a bad carb and you'll chase your tail fiddling with the carb without fixing anything (and don't ask me why I know this! hahaha)

On my car the points would last about 1000 miles. After 3 sets I went with a Pertronix set-up so I'd never have to mess with points again. If your 1940 carb (which I like a lot and have one on my car now) is set up for dual advance then you might want to also think about upgrading to either a DUI or DS-II set up. I've done both and really liked the upgrade.

Anyway, make sure the point gap or dwell angle is per factory spec. Then make sure the initial timing is OK. I usually set the initial timing around 10-12 deg or go as far as the motor will let you without spark knock.

Next is to make sure the cap and rotor are in good condition and not all burned up.

I know this is a topic of debate here, but I like ported vacuum instead of manifold. Seem like others here have had luck with manifold vacuum, but after getting the point gap and initial timing right you may want to experiment with the source of vacuum to the dizzy. There should be a capped off tube on the side of the carb. Go buy a vacuum gauge and hook it on the tube, if there is no vacuum at idle but you get vaccum when the thottle plate is open then it's "timed" or "ported" vaccum. Route the vac tube from this port to the dizzy. You may have to play around with the initial timing based on the vaccum source.

If there are still drivability issues then its more than likely carb rebuild time!

8) i agree, ignition first. once it is squared away, then start on the carb.

On first visual inspection the points look OK. Of course being a newbie at judging I could be very wrong. But I don't see any pitting or anything.

I do see a lot of black scoring on the numbs on the underside of the rotor cap (whatever they call those metal tabs that stick down that the rotor hits). The rotor itself looks OK. As for replacing the points, oh yea, a DS-II is in my future. I need to decide whether to throw money at a pertronix in the meantime.

Carb: Hrm. It *looks* like it was a dual-advance carb at one point, but the SCV has been yanked.

Calibrating: I guess I'll start on that. Gene2Dr has offered to come up and help me through another "I'm new at this stuff" task.

I'll take photos this weekend and post them regarding the carb. It's never looked right. I hadn't worried about it 'til now because it ran just fine when I first got it.