Hard to start and plugs are sooty

[DaveMarcotte]

HI all.
Hoping to get some guidance.

Background:
Made some changes and upgrades to my '77 Spider over the winter. Brake rebuild, 4-2 mani, timing belt and changed my carb to a Chinese 34 ADF.
Had her out and all was well but not great. She was a little hard to start, and I suspected she was running a little lean. Checked the plugs and found they where a bit on the white side of beige. Adjusted the lean mixture and she never ran better!
That was two weekends ago. This past Saturday, after telling a friend how great I got her to run, I offered him a ride.
Well, took forever to start, ran just ok, missing on acceleration. After returning she wouldn't start up an hour later. Figuring I must have flooded her I took the air cover off. (with ignition off there was still fuel dripping into the primary barrel of the carb?) Anyhow, got it to start, (many cranks) checked the timing which was good and I checked the plugs again to find them black and sooty.
Where I'm at now:
Wanting to upgrade to a distributerless ignition anyway< I figured I'd make that change now to eliminate the ignition as the problem source.

Computronix ignition system arrived Thursday thanks to Allison Auto, I installed it today, including new clean plugs.
Well, same problem with starting, when she did finally start, it ran OK but after shutdown, same hard to start. Checked plugs, yes, you guessed it, my new plugs are now black and sooty. Adjusted the carb to full lean and bacedk her out two full turns (as per factory setting) No go!
Can anyone offer some insight? Thanks in advance.

[azruss]

sounds like your dripping fuel is flooding the carb. a few things could cause the problem. I'll let the carb experts give you clues here as they would know better than me. odd to see that in a new carb.

[DaveMarcotte]

Thinking float issue. Got her started this mornings. Couldn't get the idle right. Finally stalled. Got out to look at the carb, forgetting to turn the key off. Looking into the barrel the fuel still running in littaraly filling up the barrel.
I've changed out all flow components with the old 32adf. Fuel bypass seems to be working know Letting her dry out, hoping will start in a couple hrs.

[DaveMarcotte]

I think my starter just went!!!! Just clicks. Tried a boost no luck. Test it later but doesnt look good. Would have liked to test the 34 adf with the float fix. Question is: if I'm going to get a Gear Reduction Starter from Mark should I bite the bullet and get a new carb from him too?

[124JOE]

yes i think it will be less trouble for you to replace it
but dot toss it someone may want it

[Nanonevol]

Give the Chinese carb another chance. You could always go back to the 32adf for a while.