81 E4ME idle air bleed valve

[301t steve]

Need help setting the idle air bleed valve.  I know that it is fine tuned with the engine on with dwell meter, but i wanted to ballpark set it while I'm putting the carb back together.  (I'd been getting carbon deposits out the tail pipe.  When I bought it I assumed it was set up, but was not).

The carb is for a 81 trans am turbo.  I think the # is 17081273.  I can't tell by the pictures in a couple of the books out there how far in the valve should go.  I've got 4/32 between the rich and lean stops, and about 1.75 inches from the top of the housing to the lean bottom.  Now if the idle air bleed valve is more like 1.65 inches, then it's top edge would have to be a little bit below the top of the air bleed housing.  But I've seen in one of the books (Roe's) where they have the top of the idle air bleed  at the top edge of the housing.

Any help or elaboration on what to do here would be appreciated.

Steve

[Cliff Ruggles]

Bought the carb?  Where did you get it from, custom built or commercially remanufactured?.......Cliff

[301t steve]

Cliff,

Well, I bought the carb from Classic Industries.  It was specifically listed for the '81 301 turbo trans am.  I assumed that it meant that it not only had the right hardware but was set correctly.  Well, the fast idle cam was not set, and the float was way too high.  (I was getting a lot of black deposits out the tailpipes so I went back to look at the carb.  Obviously there are a lot of other potential causes for the soot so I'll just keep it to the carb here.)

Roe's book gives actual depths for the M/C solenoid screw, rich idle stops, and idle air bleed valve down to the thousandths of an inch (and uses the J-tool which I don't own).  But the '81 Pontiac service manual recommends 4 turns counter clockwise from the bottom for the M/C solenoid screw, 2 turns cc from the bottom for the rich idle stop screw, and 4/32in for the gap between the rich and lean idle stops. 

The problem I was having was understanding what the J-tool was all about for setting the idle air bleed valve.  The picture wasn't great in the books I've seen and I certainly don't have access to that tool nor know it's dimensions.  (If I just had used a straight gage, what would be the necessary depth if the "J" part of that tool was taken out and I just lined up the top of the straight edge with the top of the air bleed valve?)

Or I guess I could just go with the turns that the service manual recommends.  Am I on the right track?

Steve

[comp]

forgot about getting the tools