Happy New Year to Everone

I have a 1981 F150 / 302 / Automatic / Holley 2 barrel carb / California emissions

PROBLEM

After reinstalling my carb after a rebuild job I am unable to get it to run correctly. When I make adjustments to get it to idle correctly while in gear the RPM’s jump way too high when I put it in Park. When I make adjustments to get it to idle correctly in Park the RPMs drop way too low when I put it in gear. I cannot seem to close that gap.
I have tried both what my Chiltons and Hanyes books suggest to get it dialed in as well as what is suggested on the Holley website. All with no luck.

The guy that rebuilt the carb for me use to own his own carb shop so I am going to assume he knows what he is doing. When I brought the carb in for him I asked him what model Holley he thought it was and he said and old Holley 500. While he was rebuilding it I called Holley to ask them about something else and while I was speaking to them I gave them the list number on the carb I was getting rebuilt and they told me that that carb was a Holley 2300 (230cfm) not a Holley 500. That got me worried thinking maybe my rebuild guy was not so good. When I mentioned to the Holley guy that the rebuild guy thought it was a 500 the Holley guy said it is easy to confuse the two as they appear the same. He said even he cannot tell the difference. That gave me a little more confidence in my carb guy. I would like to think that the carb guy realized the carb was a 2300 when he took it apart and as such rebuilt it with the correct kit and to the correct specs.

Now that I have the carb back and cannot get it dialed in before I go back to the rebuild guy I would like to know as much as I can if I am going to sell him on the idea that he may have made a mistake when he rebuilt it

QUESTIONS

1. Is the internal differences between a 500 and a 2300 such that an experienced carb guy should know what the carb is after taking it apart?
2. Does anyone know if the kits and the rebuild settings for a 2300 and a 500 are different?
3. Could someone rebuild a 2300 using kits and specs for a 500 and not know it.
4. Could that perhaps be the cause of my not being able to get this carb to run correctly?
5. If I am way off base here any suggestions where I am going wrong or on what I should try next?

 

Oh boy this one is going to be fun to fix over the puther, where to start , the tag on the carb, should have told your rebuild guy which kit to use. ,,,, If he paid attention to what he was doing , then he would have seen a diff. in the gaskits that he removed vs the gaskits in the kit .

Every body is afraid to rebuild carb's. ,,, theres really nothing to it a sixth grader that can read can do it. They give you a blow up of the parts in the carb. Well you dont remove everything it shows , An really in a rebuilt kit all you get is a set of gaskits, that fit several carbs in that model , you have to match them up an throw the others away its really that simple.. an make sure the carb is CLEAN.

The hard part can be setting it up, you can have a vaccum leak somewhere causing you a fit.
did you replace the lower gaskit that goes between the carb an the intake, this one comes on some kits an not others , but its very important its replaced, an if the egr plate is under it as on some fords that gaskit has to be replaced (an clean the egr at that time as well ).

Iam guessing your carb has the lil electric solined on the throttle cable side thats suppose to kick up the idle when you turn on the ac as well ??,, an if so does it have the vaccum chamber with it as well to lower the idle as you let off the throttle ???,,,,, if so first disconnect it , an back the screw off so it dont touch your carb linkage, you with me so far ??? , if so now back to the carb , your 2 air mixture screws under the front of the carb how far out -( how many turns do you have them turned out ) normally I start them at about 2 an 1/2 turns backed off after turning them in to seat them.


Next , make sure your fast idle cam is not hitting the steps on the throttle linkage as that will give you a high idle.

You need a vaccum gauge next , hook it up to a open port on the intake, not the carb. but somewhere on the intake, Hopefully your timing is allready set on the engine, Then hook up your tach. An plug what ever else the manufacter suggest you do at this time . Start the car an see what your vaccum reading is > what you wanta shoot for is like 21 inches at idle .

Now I like to set my idle a tad higher then what specs call for like 800rpm. but you can set it to specs if you like. turn up the throttle stop screw to get the car to idle like 600 rpms if possible, An then move back to your mixture screws, tweak them in or out as needed to raise the idle . You should be able to hear the engine smooth out as you turn the screws, After you get one screw set to where the motor sounds ok, Stop, turn that screw all the way in an count the # of turns it takes to seat it. then back it out that # of turns. now the motor will probally die , thats ok, just restart it after you turn the screw out.

Then move over to the other screw an do the same thing. In the end both screws should be backed out the same # of turns with in an 1/8 of a turn differance. Check your vaccum gauge see whats its reading ??? , you may have to turn the base idle back down at this point as it might be too high, if so go ahead an do this.

After you adjust your base idle, you may need to tweak the mixture screws again to get your vaccum reading back up, but you shouldnt have to go more than a turn in or out on them at this point.

Now at this point you should have a nice smooth idle , go ahead an drop it in gear an see what you get , if the car idle drops to low , them tweak the base idle up not more then a turn., if you did these adjustments with the air cleaner off your going to be like 50-75 rpm too low after you install the filter, just so you know , so you might want to set it just a tad over in the start.,,,,,,

If you have a very low vaccum reading after you adjust the carb , like under 17 inches , then when you drop it in gear it will die every time , your going to need to find why your vaccum is so low before you contuine . Good Luck an let us know how it turns out ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,