Think this carb needed a rebuild! I know I haven't seen one in worse shape.

On top of the fuel bowls being full of sludge and varnish, someone previously rebuilt the carb using gasket sealer. They also messed up the linkage and missed one of the two check *****.

It took me a full day of cleaning and scrubbing to get those bowls clean.

It's back together and I'm still doing on car adjustments.
The shop manual was invaluable when it came to tearing this down, although it did miss a few things and didn't quite explain somethings clearly.
Overall not a bad carb to rebuild. I think a Quadrajet is way more complicated.

 

I know what you mean, these are pretty straightforward to rebuild. Yours does look yummy inside!

 

when that carb was new, everything was simpler

 

As I am doing a similar rebuild on a 4GC on a Cadillac, I would be interested in learning the location of the 2 check ***** you referenced. I ask, as when I tore mine down, I found only 1. It was located under the T-bar plate shown in your picture in the venture cluster mounting area. Where was the second?

 

The second check ball should be at the bottom of the accelerator pump well (right under the bottom spring). There is a continuous passage between check ***** (which I imagine is how the accelator pumop works).

 

Yup...the two check ***** are under the T-bar and under the spring in the accelerator pump well.
Mine was missing the check ball in the accelerator pump well.
There are 2 different sized check *****. In my kit the T-bar ball was steel and the pump was aluminum looking.

 

Correct. The aluminum ball goes in the bottom of pump well, under the pump return spring. The steel ball goes under the T-bar. I just went through this on the 4GC for my 215.

As for comparisons with a Qjet, I'll take the Qjet any day. One float to worry about, not four, for example. Maybe I'm just more used to rebuilding Qjets.