[d_ford]

Argess,
The linkage looks like it's adjusted correctly. It does create smoke from the exhaust when I accelerate at all except very easy, that's when it pops and cackles through the exhaust. It seems to do it when the secondaries would be opening but when I disconnected the vacuum hose the should have eliminated the secondaries altogether. I used Jon's advice from Pony Carbs and timed it without using a timing light after I put the new carbs on. The carbs were replaced initally due to this issue and made a huge difference to the better as far as startup, idle and driving as long as I accelerate slowly.
I suppose anything's possible but the carbs were run on an engine and tuned before they were shipped to me and they never backfired after installation so I wouldn't have thought a power valve was out.
The valves were recently readjusted so they should be good to go. I have a new aftermarket distributor and wire set that I'm going to install tomorrow in case the dist. isn't advancing like it should and in case any of the plug wires are bad. I'm just tired of throwing parts at this thing with no results.