[Backdraft1725]

So, I've been wrestling with my Weber carbs for a few months now. This has been frustrating, but a good education. I swear that these carbs will make you want to just give up some days. I was really frustrated with my off-idle acceleration (not the transition area, just the low acceleration in general). It just felt too weak in the low rpms and I couldn't figure it out. So, I read and read and read. I've been through every Weber post here and on the VW, RX-7 and Lotus forums as well.

Finally, a Ferrari 308 balancing guide helped me out with something. I've been balancing the carbs at idle based on the idle speed set screws, which is fine for a nice, balanced idle. But, when I hit the accelerator, everything went out of whack. So, given that I have an ERA and I can't adjust a throttle cable to pull the carbs off idle (there isn't a cable), I made a jig to set the idle using the throttle mechanism. I set the idle around 900rpm using the jig and then backed the idle set screws out to make sure that they weren't influencing anything. Checking this way, my left-right carb balance was way off. So, I rebalanced with the throttle jig. Then I took it off and then balanced the carbs using on the idle set screws on each side (just adjusting the screws). This made a huge difference. The engine is much more responsive.

Sorry if this was obvious for everyone else, but it was something that I was overlooking. Moral of the story -- balance your carbs twice. Once based on the throttle mechanism and once using the idle set screws. In a perfect world, both would come out the same, but I do think that there is a tiny bit of play in the overall linkage assembly (which is even the case with Ferraris according to the 308 manual).