Highway's Law

[Highway Star]

Well, it started up for me. It was kind of hard starting but it eventually fired. I let it come up to temp, and shot the timing (22 initial, 32 total), adjusted the idle to around 800 in park, vacuum gauge read 15" in park.

I went for a ride, maybe 3 miles. It was terrible. First it seemed like it was fine. I stopped at a red light and in gear, it was trying to stay alive, idling below 600. It seemed to accelerate ok, but just wasn't all there like it should be. I was going to go have the battery and alternator tested and pulled into autozone, but when I let the car coast through the parking lot, it was surging and idling waaaaay low again.

In all honesty, I don't know what I'm doing. I can read and research all I want, but I can't gt this thing running right again. I have a list of problems a mile long...

Ticking rockers on passenger side
Exhaust leaks at header flanges on both sides
As of today, there is a bad shimmy driving down the road. At near 50 mph, the hood was shaking sideways back and forth. No weights look to be missing from the wheels, maybe it is a tire or two


There must be a vacuum leak too. There is an awful hissssss coming from around the carb somewhere but I'm too thick to find it. I "rebuilt" my carb a little ways back, and obviously have messed something up.) I don't know if it ought to be making this noise or not.

The timing curve is wrong. I put a re-curve kit in it, and it has nowhere near the amount of advance it needs.

After it was running, my meter showed 13.85 volts on the battery, so I guess the alternator is working. I don't know what the hell that means though.

This thing is all messed up!! I'm ready to just park it for a while. I don't have $ to throw at it for a battery or tires, and don't have the patience (at the present time) to troubleshoot all of these problems.

I almost called it a POS earlier today. This is bad.