@Antman,
Where do I start? Deep breath . . .
Your choke cable's bent, and so your choke's only there for decoration. Loosen the screw on the choke lever, and pull the cable out of the choke lever. Then undo the clamp holding the choke cable outer to the carby, and pull the cable assembly free of the retainer. Get two pairs of pliers, one on each end of the ninety-degree bend in the inner cable, and carefully straighten the cable. The cable's quite hard steel, so it'll put up a fair amount of resistance. Go gently, and you'll straighten the cable without putting any kinks in it.
Gently move the end of the choke lever towards the front of the car until it stops. It'll be at about the 4 o'clock position. Feed the cable assembly through the retaining clamp, and then feed the inner cable through the clamp on the choke lever, but don't tighten the screw yet. When you have maybe 1/2" of choke cable coming out of the clamp on the choke lever, push the choke button fully home on the dash. If there's more than 1/2" of cable outer sticking out in front of the retaining clamp, gently pull the cable outer back, but not so much that the inner disengages from the choke lever. Tighten the retaining clamp, then tighten the screw on the choke lever, but not so much that it kinks the cable.
Pull the choke all the way out. Check that the choke butterfly is completely closed. Now push the choke back in, all the way. The choke butterfly should be completely open, and the choke lever should be in the 4 o'clock position. After you've done all this, there's a good chance that the engine will idle too slow or die when the choke's pushed in. You might have to bump the idle speed up.
Now, carburettor. If your carburettor was a human, it'd have a long scar across its forehead, and a bolt coming out each side of its neck.
It has been Frankensteined, unfortunately. The top two-thirds are from a 179, 186 or 202, because the venturi size is 1-5/32; and the bottom third is from a 149 or 161. Unfortunately the code that I really want to see is partially obscured by the stud and nut, but it appears to be BXUV-2.
You've got an adjustable main jet. The rules for setting an adjustable main jet are: Turn the adjusting screw inwards in small increments until your exhaust valves burn. Then remove and overhaul cylinder head. Then turn adjusting screw 1/4 turn outwards, and that should be just about right.
This advice is not meant to be taken seriously. Rather, it illustrates what happens when things go wrong.
I would really, really suggest that you buy a BXOV-1 Stromberg (the right one for the car). But your inlet manifold may have been modified to take the later carburettor. What size spanner fits the attaching nuts? If you fit a 10 mm or 3/8" open-end spanner over the threaded part of the stud, is it an exact fit, or does it have more than a mm clearance on the stud? Or you can just measure the stud size with a digital caliper, if you have one.
The correct mounting studs for a BXOV-1 are 5/16", UNF thread, and the correct nuts are 5/16" UNF, which are 1/2" AF. The later carburettors take 3/8" UNF studs and nuts, the nuts being 9/16" AF. If, then, your inlet manifold's been modified to take the later carby, the correct one is no longer a bolt-on replacement. And so you'll have to track down an umolested inlet manifold.
How to do a rescue? The first thing, in my opinion, is to ditch the adjustable main jet and find an original main jet plug. Plus, you'll have to confirm that the main jet is a 58 (it'll probably be stamped 058). But you'll need a main jet key to extract it.
Here's what I'd suggest: Straighten the choke cable first, and get the choke working. Get rid of the adjustable main jet and go back to a fixed 58 jet. I'm awfully suspicious of the valvesaver injection setup. Disconnect the vacuum advance pipe from the carburettor and plug the fitting, temporarily, with Blu-Tac. If everything comes good with a working choke and fixed 58 main jet, great. Then if you're really attached to the fuel-saver injection setup, you can reconnect it.
Rob
