Just climbed out of one of those simple repairs that turned into falling down a rabbit hole. This ever happen to you?

Had an exhaust leak at the choked stove plate. Turns out it just needed a 3/16" plug installed. But I couldn't get at it with the choke housing in the way (Quadrajet). So I figured I'd remove the choke housing.

While it appears to be completely external, there's a shaft that goes through the body of the carb to work a lever to close the choke plate. I knew this, but it's literally been about 25 years since I've messed with a quadrajet. So the little lever fell off inside the body of the carb.

I tried to pick it out with a variety of implements but all I managed to do was wedge it in there pretty tight. I had to remove the carb.

I removed the carb and turned it upside down to drain it into a pan that already had a few quarts of used oil in it. This becomes important later.

I whacked the bottom of the carb a few times and that stupid lever fell out. I reassembled it on the work bench and found that when I tried to re-install the choke housing something was missing. The high-speed idle cam. It had to have fallen off into that drain pan. Or so I hoped.

I fished around in the murky oil and to my surprise actually came up with the cam in question. I finished reassembling the carb and put it back on.

Hmmm - throttle lever has no "spring" to it. Accelerator pump is not returning. I worked it by hand to see if it would reseat itself. Nope. Now I have to remove the top of the carb to re-install the accelerator pump.

Sure enough, the plunger had come loose from the rod and was wedged in there sideways. The air horn gasket was pretty beat up by the time I was done so I decided not to reuse it. I ordered a pair online.

Being very impatient, I started thinking of other options for that gasket. My brother reminded me of all of the QJets we rebuilt when we were little, and that one of my dad's Vettes still has a QJet on it. I went over to my parents' house and sure enough - there were about a dozen QJet rebuild kits going back to when I was a teenager. I grabbed a new accelerator pump and gasket and went back home.

I put it all back together and found that I may have inadvertently solved another issue. It wouldn't pass emissions, even when leaned out all the way (it's just an idle test). Previously, with the idle air screws shut completely, I still had to back the throttle stop all the way out to get it to come down to the factory 700 RPM. It was getting air or fuel from somewhere it shouldn't have.

When I put it back on this time, I had to open up the idle air screws a bit and crank in the idle stop about a turn-and-a-half to get it up to 700 RPM. It seems to be running at least as well as it did before.

But now that I've sealed up that choke stove exhaust leak, another much bigger leak is easier to hear over at the left exhaust manifold. Seems like you could spend all of your spare time and then some chasing down problems with this old stuff. But that's what makes it fun.

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Well  yea,,,, Now what FUN would it be NOT to find another problem lurking in the shadows.(lol).

It's called the Murphy's Law 10 best.. You fix 1 problem and 9 sit in the waiting,,, winking their beaty little eyes at you, just waiting to sneak out when your not looking. The Murphs and Murphettes are sneaky lil critters.  Thats what keeps us preoccupied outside while the better half bakes cookies (yea I wish), and makes for a good excuse to have the guys come over and talk shop about nothing. BBQ, maybe?

Ok, nuff of this nonsence,, Glad you got the Q-jet issue  and stove exhaust leak resolved, and may other repairs go smoothly for you,,, Thanks for sharing the story.. Happy trails.

Yeah - BBQ on Labor Day sounds good. If it were here, I could continue to tinker with it. But it's at another friend's house so I gotta wash up and head out. I'll leave the exhaust leak for another day. At least I was able to move the rig back to its parking spot. It was sitting in a really inconvenient spot when I decided to mess with the carb. Lesson learned there, too (when messing with mechanical things, make sure the vehicle is in a desirable parking spot just in case you inadvertently disable it). But, again, it was supposed to be a "5 minute job". 

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