While waiting for my correct carb from Sparky for 1969 Toronado, I have two questions to fix things for now:

1. I think the throttle spring bracket was bolted to the wrong bolt (red arrow). I believe it goes on the intake manifold bolt (green arrow). Is it ok to pull that bolt and bolt it back down, or do I need to do all the bolts evenly? (or worst case leave those alone, and I fabricate a bracket that reaches out from the current bolt.)

2. I just don't remember, and can't find a diagram: is the vacuum hose from the front of the carb supposed to go to that port on the engine? (blue arrow). That's where it was coming back from the rebuild.





Thanks,

 

Bob, yes, I think the Toro goes there, green arrow. You are missing a glorified washer with holes for the spring.

The blue arrow is a source of manifold vacuum, it would do things like power the AC, the headlights, etc. A carb is a source of ported or manifold vacuum, so you would not hook them to each other.

 

Bob,
The port with the blue arrow provides vacuum to the hot air valve on the air cleaner. The spring bracket actually goes on forward most intake bolt not the one with the green arrow. The forward most bolt should be a bolt with a stud on top. The bracket goes on the stud and a nut holds on the bracket. You might consider draining the coolant below the level of the intake to be safe, but removing and replacing the intake bolt should not be a problem.

 

Got it, thanks for the photos! The little bracket is there, just on the wrong bolt. But the forward bolt (new green arrow) is also just a regular bolt, so I'll chase one down with a stem. For the vacuum port, good, I thought that's where the hot air valve hose went, it's just dangling. I see it now in the assembly diagram Joe sent me in another post.

So, I removed the incorrect carb hose (blue circle), and I think I used to have a thermostat vacuum valve where this plug is (blue arrow). I had the A/C removed during the engine rebuild, so if it's only needed for that, that's ok. I just don't know where the carb port goes - from your photo, it looks like it goes to that former valve.

(Sorry for the multi-topic post - I should have just called it post-rebuild-top-of-engine-cleanup.)

 

I think I got it - it's the ported vacuum for dist vacuum advance. And that vacuum unit is hanging empty also, so that's probably where it goes. A while back, I changed to electronic ignition, but I think the vacuum advance is still used. I'll hook it up regardless. So basically, they had the hoses switched - should be carb to distributor, and air cleaner to engine vacuum port.

 

Back to the spring, any suggestions for where to get that bolt/stud and its size? (I can pull it and put it back if needed). The parts lists are showing only 1 part number for 69 bolt, but I think that's just a regular bolt.

 

Bob,
To answer the vacumm question; The thermostatic vacuum switch does go in the area of the blue arrow in post #4. The 3 hoses that connect to that switch, are the ported vacuum from the carb (blue circle in post #4), the hose going to the vacuum advance on the distributor, and a hose coming from manifold vacuum. The manifold vacuum comes from a tee fitting in the hose going to the trans modulator line. Your car is missing that tee fitting. If you want to forget about the thermostatic switch, you could run the distributor to the ported vacuum from the carb, or plug the carb and put a tee in the modulator hose to run full manifold vacuum. As for the front bolt, there was a classified add from a guy selling random motor hardware. He probably has one, but I can't find his add. Another option would be to use a peice of threaded rod in the head and tighten the intake with a nut on the threaded rod. Then add the bracket and a second nut to hold the bracket.

 

Tom, thanks for the details! I guess when they took out the A/C while rebuilding it, they took out too much... I'll either go with switch or from the ported vacuum. I've been reading the carb books just go from ported vacuum.

Edit: Found a post from Joe, which I trust more than all the books combined, I can go with just manifold vacuum if I don't want to mess around with the switch. https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...59/#post319506

The thermostatic switch I can find, about $25 from AC Delco (or a NOS for $425 ! I'm not that much purist on this car...)