amazing vacuum discovery

[Soma576@xxxx]

List,

As many of you know, my car has been plagued with slight running problems 
ever since i got it. part by part, tweak by tweak i've gotten the car WAY better 
and thru the whole summer it has run flawlessly with only two problems - 
lower end of the spectrum gas milage and i have always felt my car ran rich even 
though it doesn't show other symptoms. my exhaust has always smelled like 
unburnt gasoline.

well yesterday i was doing some cleaning and i knocked the vacuum hose that 
goes from the thermal control valve to the middle orifice on the vacuum advance 
canistor/solnoid behind the fuel distributor. the hose felt a little loose i 
cut a bit off of it to give some fresh hose to the fitting. lo and behold, 
inside the part i cut off there was a little BALL BEARING wedged into the hose, 
apparently to correct some problem by cutting off vacuum years ago that a 
previous owner/mechanic did. great......

now my car idles at around 950 (used to be 775) and when it is hot the idle 
sounds kind of squirrelly. this is terrible because i think i have been 
working around this BS for years and now is EVERYTHING out of wack?

this summer i have:
replaced advance solenoid/canister
had CO professionally tuned by a ferrari restoration shop
had timing adjusted
adjusted throttle linkage and all that

actually everything on my car was more or less perfect until i found this 
'problem' and 'corrected it'. i expect to have to get the timing adjusted, but 
what else will have to be done now? the book says timing should be checked at 
775 rpm. i am a couple hundred higher than that. will that make a 
difference? how do i get the idle back down again? will my CO have to be adjusted again 
(i drove 300 miles to get it done)?

any ideas on how to calm things down again are much appreciated!!

Andy


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