Well, it sure is fun learning how to work on this beast, without knowing anyone else in the city who works on cars, and having absolutely no experience. :)

I thought more about what might be happening to the car overnight, and had the hood open to begin looking at the carbs to see if perhaps one of them was leaking gas. Just at that moment, the rear carb started SPURTING gas all over, well, the exhaust manifold. Shut the car off...braced for fire...calmed down.

I guess the last time I had the float chamber cover off the rear carb I didn't tighten the shaft that the float pivots off enough, and it has been working its way loose. This is probably one of the reasons why I have had hard starts, as much of the gas in that float chamber slowly leaks out at night. So I took off the carb, tightened it back up, and presto.

I assumed it would start fine this morning. No such luck.

Then I noticed something which I should have noticed before. There is a little mark on the fast idle cam which the choke wires are connected to (nothing about it in the service manual). And that mark should line up with the fast idle screw which is pushed open by the cam when the choke is on, I reasoned. Well, it wasn't lined up with it, because I had just connected the wires wherever the choke was positioned when you let it go.

So I adjusted the choke accordingly, so it is now fully open when I pull on the dash choke handle, and the car started well. So I think I have been trying to start the car in the morning with little gas, and with the choke only marginally open.

The car could already have warmed up by the time I figured all this out, so I will have to wait until tomorrow morning to see if this has fixed the problem.

Greg in Ottawa