[Gary H]

Working on a 65' Tri-power that has rough idleing issues, stock engine. I took the center carb apart and the two check balls are reversed. Large steel ball was under th accelerator pump and hte ssmall aluminum ball was under the "T" spring. What issues would cause? Could this be the reason for the rough idle?

[61-63]

Not really it would block your accelerator pump shot because one or both balls usually get stuck in the passages at the bottom and block it off.

Rough idling is normally a vacuum leak somewhere.

[pfilean]

You need to squirt some choke cleaner around everywhere there may be a vacuum leak. If the idle smooths out when you squirt a spot you have found a vacuum leak. Fix all you can find. If is still idles rough then block off the front and rear carbs at the base and see if that helps. If so you probably need to replace the DAG sealant on the front and rear throttle blades. With the front and rear carbs off hold them up to a light source and see how much light you see around the throttle blades. Any more than a very minimal amount will cause rough idle.

[Gary H]

A couple of more clues on how the car is acting. When the car is cold the engine starts right up, and then idles slightly rough with a minor miss. Once I warm it up, it misses a little worse. Then if I shut it off for a few minutes, it's hard to start and takes 5-10 seconds to start. Acts like it's flooded. Too high a float level? Could the main body be leakin fuel?

[61-63]

It could be the coil, the plugs, sparkplug wires, crack in the intake that opens up more as it warms up, base gaskets, crack starting in a vacuum hose. The drill is to start with the easier stuff and work towards the harder/more expensive. The hard starting after it gets hot can be the coil; there is corrosion in the windings which increases the resistance and heat makes it worse.

[John Milner]

You might try a fuel pressure regulator. Mine was difficult to start after it got up to operating temperature. It wanted to load up at idle as well. The center carb was the only one that would leak down the bores after I shut the engine down. I regulated the fuel pressure down to 5psi and it fixed it. I am just running a stock fuel pump as well.

[Joel Koontz]

If the engine is hot, it is common for todays fuels to percolate out of the carb into the intake manifold.

When it is hot, what happens if you try to restart it 15-30 seconds after shutting it off?

If it restarts relatively OK on the quick restart, fuel percolation is what I would suspect.

If it is hard to start 10-30 minutes after a hot shutdown, holding the gas pedal to the floor will probably get it to start quicker.

Lower float levels may help some, but probably won't cure the problem. Insulators under the carbs may also help.

[61-63]

+2 on the insulators under the carbs re the hard starting.