Holley help. Dripping primary after rebuild.

C-Bass wrote: The switching from one venturi to the other still confuses me though...

I think I know the answer. When I was having a similar booster leak, I had talked to an auto mechanic who rebuilds Holleys. His explanation basically made sense to me: The fuel will basically leak out of the booster with the lower pickup point. Lower meaning, lower at the moment, so if the boat/car where a bit tilted to one direction or another, it would change it.

I read up on this a bit and there is something called the "Main Well" which is kind of like mini-resovoir and staging area for the fuel. Both the Main Jet(s?) and the power valve let fuel from the bowl into the main well. So, I think once excess fuel has made it's way into the main well, it's probably related to tilt, which booster is going to wind up leaking it.

One thing I'm confused on, I always thought there were multiple main jets, but if both boosters share one main well, I would think there would only need to be one main jet.

Update*

Changed the primary needle/seat back to the old(original) set. Put it back in the boat, fired it up, and the problem is gone. Coming down off of higher RPM the primary venturies stop dripping gas immediately and it returns to the idle circuit for a nice smooth idle. So evidently there was something going on with the rebuild kit's needle/seat. Oh well...problem solved. Thanks for the input guys.

I will try lowering the float a little more, but it was in the exact same position as it was before I rebuilt the carb, and I already lowered it about 1/16" to check and it still had the same issue. If it was the float level, wouldn't it be a consistent issue, and not intermittent?

Thanks for the advice guys. It's appreciated.

Yeah I pulled the seat out last night and gave it a good look. It looked fine, and I went ahead and cleaned it anyway. I kept the old parts from the rebuild so I guess I'll throw the old needle/seat back in and see what happens.

The switching from one venturi to the other still confuses me though...

Could still be the needle and seat. While your in there ajust the primary float up 1/32 (just a tick) I think its set about perfect but with running the engine,vibration, moving around ect its just a little high. The venturi effect is sucking gas out of the bowl.

Alright, I rebuilt the carb on the 85 and things were pretty uneventful. Soaked in carb cleaner and followed all the recommendations from previous discussions on here. I put it back on the boat and it fired right up. I used a vacuum gage to set the idle mixture screws. Then I rev'd it up to check the accelerator pump and it worked as well. After the RPM's dropped back down to idle I noticed fuel dripping out of the primary venturi. The boat procedes to idle like crap. So I bring it off idle a few times and this problem continues. I diagnose it with a dirty needle/seat on the primary side. So I take off the primary bowl and remove the seat and clean it up and make sure there is no debris, spray real well with carb cleaner, reassemble, and restart. Same issue.

The thing that stumped me is sometimes it would drip out of the port venturi, other times it would be the starboard venturi, and other times it would be fine. If it were debris in the needle/seat, why is it switching sides. And why after I cleaned it really well? Could the rebuild kit just have a bad needle/seat? I'm thinking about pulling it back off and trying the original just to check.