For those that have helped before .. thanks.
I got the timing back to 8BTDC, which was a settlement between the original
11BTDC and the book's 6BTDC. Seems to run down the road just fine now.
Replaced the valve cover gaskets, spending a lot of time on straightening, cleaning, etc. Also used pan washers to distribute the load. Some RTV, some TLC, and I seemed to have stopped the hemorrhage.
The choke sticking closed was the oddest of things. Years of overtorquing the filter housing to the carb stem warped the top of the carb, and the choke plate was sticking slightly. Tapping the stem down fixed the problem. Choke works now.
However, I seemed to have somehow created a problem (or just uncovered one) when it is cold. I accept the fact that this year engine does not run great when cold, BUT ... When cold (less than 1/3 temp guage), it hesitates when I break from idle. If I'm too agressive, it'll kill the engine. (It was doing this before I banged on the carb so don't yell at me TOO much for that). I was thinking that the vacuum advance might be sticking, or the thermo-vacuum switch not working. Maybe the Carb set too Rich? that might also explain the "missing" for the first 30 seconds or so?
Also, I'd like to address the "clanging" issue now coming from the U-joints. There are 3 U-joints, the noise seems to come from the forward set when I put it in Gear, or Switch gears. Occasionally it will do it in a rapid downshift to 1st. I climbed under to investigate. Turning the drive shaft by hand, it doesn't slop within the u-joints at all that I can tell. It only bangs the park cam in the transmission, and/or the rear gearbox. Not much slop at all. There is however some movement laterally inside the "drive shaft bearing housing". If I grab it, and push up or pull down it moves a little bit in here. Seems to mostly be moving the whole thing, and not slopping around inside the bearing/bushing itself. What should this look/feel like?
Any help appreciated.
BT3