Sounds like they use a floating 40 year window, if so next year you'd be exempt. I knowTexas uses a floating 25 year window, so anything 1983 or newer has to pass. I can't imagine your air quality is any worse than Houston's, but maybe it is.

I have had luck paying the testing shop a few bucks to tinker with it to get it to pass, you might try that.

 

Actually, 1968 was the first year for non-CA emissions standards on vehicles (CA cars got it in 66). And honestly, as simple as these older carbs are, it's not hard to get them to pass the relatively lax emissions standards they're subject to as long as the engine is in good running condition.

Reset your idle mixture and go back, it'll probably be fine.

 

I think New Jersey requires emissions testing for vehicles built before 1968, although the requirements are looser the further you go back. I know that a dozen years or so ago my daughter's '66 had to pass a sniffer test, and that I don't remember it being a problem. I don't know what the numbers had to be offhand, but I probably do still have them somewhere.

"Lean it and retard it" seemed to be enough with the older cars when you were reasonably close, though you do have to make sure that you don't overdo the "lean it " part. Too lean = lean misfire = HC goes through the roof and you fail it the other way.

At one time I think that different idle mixture screws were available, using a shallower angle so that you had better tuning resolution. IOW, turning them by, say, a quarter of a turn would not cause as much mixture change as the standard mixture screws would, which made it easier to make small changes.


Norm

 

O.K. Here's the situation. I went back for a retest after replacing the distributor cap, PCV, leaning the idle mixture and retarding the timing a bit. Failed again, but this time on the high idle. Here's my numbers:

First Time:

High Speed: HC = 60, CO% = 2.71
Idle: HC = 229, CO% = 7.94 (failed on the idle CO % by 1.94)

Secong Time:

High Speed: HC = 133, CO% = 7.82 (failed on high speed CO% by 1.82)
Idle: HC = 111, CO% = 5.93 (just .07 below the max)

What should I be looking at? Did I retart the timing too much? Lean out the carb too much?

Thanks,

 

I love the Texas hill country. We will may never have emissions testing. I know Dallas/Ft. Worth and Houston have testing, but only for cars 2-24 years old. That is insane to test a 40 year old car.

 

What the F***! on a 68. Hill AFB? sounds like you might bein the military (Thanks). Reregister your vehicle at your home of record. Problem solved. The law cant make you get a local license or plates on your vehicle as long as you have a green ID (pink if dependent).

 

'68 and newer need to be tested where i live...thats one of the resons i have a '65

 

Go figure. I took it to the shop today to have them hook it up and tune it on the machine and it passed with flying colors without having to adjust anything. Hmmm...someone's machine is wrong.

 

haha, i would tune it to pass, then as soon as it passed un-tune it so i would have max performance