E4ME on 81 Corvette...2 Questions

[HammerDown]

I was having all kinds of idle issues well...I finally purchased and installed a rebuild kit from Cliff's Performance Q-Jet Carburetors.
It's on the car and running better however...
Two questions about these two adjustments below.
1)Lean mixture solenoid adjustment screw (the tiny funky screw)
2)Idle air bleed valve adjustment - larger flat head (set with dwell meter)

#1. I have that tiny solenoid screw two turns out from seated (where it was originally) > should I mess with it while it's running (or) is there a starting point how many turns out from fully seated it should be??? And no, the gauge in the instructions did NOT come in the rebuild kit. (bummer)

#2. I know a dwell meter is needed for the Idle Air Bleed Valve Adjustment (which I have but) > what should the meter be set on (dwell, volts, rpm?) and my meter has two wires one GREEN one BLACK...which wire goes to that green-clippy thing hanging near the carb and does the black meter wire simply go to ground?
Also > at the "dwell reading" do I focus on the 6 or 8 cylinder side???
And, what 'number/value' am I looking for while turning the idle air bleed adjustment?


PS my carb was very clean inside, I hoped to see some blocked passages, air bleeds etc but saw nothing...HOWEVER...I do believe the main problem was the two idle air bleed valve o-rings were bad.
Oh, and Cliff suggested minimum 5-turns out on the two lower air/idle/mixture screws...so that's where they're set at.

Much thanks for any feedback, Ray

[Cliff Ruggles]

The best course of action with those carburetors is to return all adjustment screws to the factory location, assuming that you counted the number of turns or referenced their location before taking it apart?

If not, no big deal.  The idle mixture screws have limited effect due to the tiny holes under them, and being fine metric pitch threads.  We usually set them about 4.5 to 5.5 turns out from seated for initial testing.

Upper idle air screw mid way thru it's travel.

We set the M/C solenoid and limit for the metering rods at the same location they were in.  Once again, if you don't count the number of turns or reference their location, set them in the middle of their range of travel for initial testing......Cliff

[HammerDown]

Done deal...
I set the Idle air bleed valve adjustment with a Dwell meter observed at the 6-cylinder scale and is hovering at 30 +- 2 and good enough for me > (1.25) turns out from fully seated)
I can tell the carb is very close as when I give it a 'slight' whiff of starting-fluid the engine pretty much does nothing, where as before the carb rebuild the engine would rev-up hard cause it was very lean.
I may go out to 6 turns on the two lower idle mixture screws (maybe)
Also the Lean mixture solenoid adjustment screw wanted 3.50 out from seated.

Readjusted the electric choke and looks like the dead cold start problem is solved too.

Considering deleting the air-pump and related components...no emissions check for me as I'm well under 5,000 miles a year.

BTW Cliff, the rubber gasket included in my kit for the EMC connector was incorrect > the cut-out should look like the letter D, so I had to use my old one over.