Rough idle

[pltmgr]

I have a 1983 351w in a 68 F100 with a Edelbrock 1406 carb. The vehicle sat for six years before I bought it. I rebuilt the carb that was really gummed up. After the rebuild the engine would accelerate and run at high speed ok but would idle very poorly. The car would stall if the drivers side idle screw was screwed in but the passenger side idle screw had no affect on the idle regardless of its position. Took the carb apart again paying alot of attention to the passenger side idle system but idle did not improve. Swapped a carb from another vehicle and the 351 ran great. Wife says I'm spending too much time on the truck and internet, Any ideas? About the carb not the wife.

[FreakysFords]

glad you clarified that!

First, a couple of good links for ya (you can save the PDFs)
http://www.edelbrock.com/automotive_new ... manual.pdf
http://www.edelbrock.com/automotive_new ... 0/1406.pdf

For starters (some of this is going to sound stupid, but best way to start is at the beginning)

Have you removed the idle mixture screw on that side and tried sticking the straw of a can of carb cleaner down in it to blow the gunk out?
Even if you did during the initial repair, might be a good idea to now, just to see if it's flowing through, or backing up.

[pltmgr]

I probably used a whole can of carb cleaner squirtings thru all the passage with the carb apart and while on the car. Idle increased when sprayed into the needle hole.

[pltmgr]

after studying Edelbrock's schematics I realized there were more idle associated passages than I realized. I disassembled the carb again and paid a lot of attention the the primary venturi booster area and this solved the problem.

[FreakysFords]

Cool, congrats!

Frank