Totally feel like im circling the drain right now with my comet. Every single thing i try to fix doesn't fix the problems it's having. Something new shows up as being messed up. The only upside is that it is all just small cost stuff because I'm not fixing the major problem that the engine has (bad piston rings I'm pretty sure, needs general rebuild) since the goal is at this time to replace the engine early next year. I think i need to take the time and get one of my relatives who actually knows older cars to help me figure out what i am doing wrong, because i am sick of people telling me that "it has got to be a vacuum leak." Well i spent 3 hours following every single vacuum line i could find references to in the dang engine and fixed all the vacuum leaks. And i really do not think a vacuum leak would make my car go from a nice smooth idle to a rough shaky sputtering idle because i put the stupid lid back on over air filter box.
Mine was doing the same thing. I found the plate on the top of the carb not opening up. I just removed it (2 small screws). And it runs fine now.
The choke plate comes into play when you need to start the car cold. If you remove it completely, you won't notice it when the car is warmed up and going down the road. It just may give you some problems at initial start up. Remember that Don lives in Arizona - nothing is cold there
Did I read that correctly... When you put the lid back on the air pan the car craps out?... Have you changed the air box?... or is it an aftermarket. Some aftermarkets have a 1" drop and it might be contacting the choke plate. Or maybe the wing nut is going into the wrong place if you know what I mean. Are you putting the lid on backwards (can't do that with the 1 barrel).
It is the stock air box and the lid is marked front so its pretty hard to put on backwards. I might try removing the choke plate because all my problems with the carb started when I cleaned all the gunk off of the carb and it was able to move again. I think though that I have gotten the whole thing so far out of correct though that I need to get help getting it back to a good state. So a few phone calls to some of my relatives should get me the help i need. Just the first time so far on this car that I have felt like I'm not getting anywhere with it. Like every week its a new little problem and i just want to get it stable until next march when i can start doing the real work on it.
