I admit I dont know a whole lot about carbs, im from the fuel injection age :P I have 4bbl carb, my car is idleing to fast once its warmed up. I noticed when I start to losen the wingnut on the breather my car begins to idle down and run rough untill it gets to the point where it dies once I remove the breather. Is this normal? If not what do I look for? I believe its a stocked 4bbl Carter carb, I plan on upgrading the carb in the future but for now I would like to get the idle fixed and whatever else that could be wrong... Im a carb newbie!

 

What do you mean by breather cap? If you mean the air cleaner on top of the carb, the engine should run the same with or without. Check to see if the air cleaner is interfering with the choke mechanism on top of the carb, or the throttle linkage on the side. The idle speed is controlled by either an adjusting screw on the throttle linkage or by an air valve screw on the carb. The idle mixture, which can also affect idle speed, is controlled by 2 or 4 needle valves, depending on the carb. See if you can get the engine running without the air cleaner.

Old engines used to have breather caps for the purpose of venting the crankcase and should have no effect on how the engine idles.

 

Its to dark now but I will check on what you suggested tomorrow. If I loosen the wingnut that holds the aircleaner around the carb it will effect the engine idle, when its completely off it will kill the engine. So I suppose that is bad [:@].

At any rate I have been thinking about picking up a Holley street avenger would you recommend that?

 

Definetly bad, as it messing with thw workings of the carburator. May want to check the rod where you screw the wing nut on. See if it is going too deep into the carb and touching things.

 

It was the bottom of the air filter base. It was making contact with throttle linkage not allowing it to settle all the way back down.