On the test drive, Colin got 10 feet backed out of the driveway and my shifting is so outta whack that he pulls back up the driveway
"we can't drive it like this" and I says "what do you mean I've driven it this way for years". His suspicion is correct, my stop plate was put in 180 degrees bass-ackwards. Fixed it right there and my shift lever is waaay better now, but I need to retrain myself on where the gears are supposed to be. Felt like I was 15 again trying for my driving permit.
Dual carb adjustment was a little challenging to wrap my pea-brain around, but I feel like I'm beginning to get a better hold on that now. The day gave me a ton of information to think about, but Colin is a patient teacher and never made me feel like an idiot - I did that to myself
.After three separate and distinct compression tests throughout the day we determined that #1 cylinder is one step from the old volks home, slightly schizophrenic and excitable with a dropper of oil. 60lbs dry, then 150lbs with oil
Colin had never seen a cylinder shoot up that much from oil. Both Colin and I were both scratching our heads and eventually with some very keen diagnostic thought - determined that somewhere along the brake booster circuit there is a very slight vacuum leak. Plugging up the brake booster pipes on each manifold started getting #1 to participate just barely - Colin referred to #1 as anemic and I thought that was a good word for it, test later in the day was 90lbs dry and more head scratching. Among other things, we adjusted clutch pedal freeplay, adjusted rear brakes and parking brake (now holds the dang bus if you can believe it).
Once the carbs were set and timing verified, Colin revved the crap out my engine while listening to the bottom end and told told me that he hated me because it sounded really healthy down there even with an unknown prior owner history. Eventually I'll need new P&Cs and head work to remedy #1 but all in all, with fixing up that ever so slight vacuum leak, I'll probably be able to baby it for just a while longer and then get crackin' on my first ever rebuild.
My new bright white timing marks Colin painted on are sweet
Thanks Colin - just wish we had a little more time. I'm sure all your customers say that. =D>
Snapped this crappy self-timed pic right before I bid him farewell.
......, now if you give me a rack of Mark's BBQ Maupin ribs,that's a different story - post-ribs, there will likely be some laundry needing to be done. 
