well, after playing around a bit with the carb, i finally got it to a good 1.25 or so rpm. i found that the little metal flap (dont know what its called, yeah, i know, noob) wasnt quite working just right. it didnt open all the way when i pulled on the throttle and it didnt really close all the way either, which i dont think its meant to anyway. ill try to get pics later is someone needs em.
but other than that, the car runs good. apart from being a real pain in the but to start, it drives fine, with some real "pep" if you will, atleast in the second half of the rpm range. at first, the throttle felt a bit sluggish, but after messing with that metal fly thing a bit, it felt alot more responsive.
one thing i am worried about though, is that when i have the car on, and its idlling at 1.25 or so, i open that flap i keep mentioning and the rpm goes up considerably. i dont know how much as im outside of the cockpit. is this supposed to be like that? im worried that the carb is wasting more gas than neccesary. if it doesnt open properly when i accelerate, then to get it to go higher, theres more gas being thrown in there. if the flap opened more, like i think it should, then it would rev up more as i accelerate, right? i dont know, maybe im over thinking this whole thing a bit. but it really doesnt seem as that flap is opening like it should. in any case, i think a rebuild is necessary.
but other than that, im really happy with the cars progress!! yay, i can finally drive it.
Those "metal flaps" you're referring to are the throttles themselves. I think, anyway, if I'm picturing this correctly. When those open up they expose the throats of the carb (the big tubes that go all the way down through the carb and have little holes in the side to let air and fuel in) to the vacuum suckage of the engine, thus pulling fuel down. When they're closed, the engine suck doesn't pull any (or much) fuel/air mix down, but when you open them up - more power! THAT is whan your idle SPEED screw (the easy one to adjust, on the pass side front of the carb) opens up a little bit, and it's why adjusting that screw is effectively the same as saying "this is how much (a tiny bit, anyway) the gas pedal will always be down, at a minimum." You could "manually" do the same thing by constantly holding down ever so slightly on your gas pedal. That screw just does it for you. That screw and your idle MIXTURE screw (in the lower back of the carb) are what are going to control your idling.
It sounds like your throttles are working well enough, and that 1.25 idle speed isn't bad. I've got mine around 1.1, but it's pretty warm here and I can get away with it. The throttles opening as they should, that's different. On a stock Honda carb setup, you use TWO throttle plates (three if you count the tiny one for the CVCC system, remember that?) and the one opens up later, as you push the pedal down more. It's the "secondary" and should only kick in when you call for that extra power. I drive my DX like an old lady, so my secondary doesn't open up very often. I actually started having a "wobbly" idle last week, and was going to adjust the mixuture and the speed and check the float. It stalled once or twice, and I was ready for a weekend carb rebuild. But all I had to do was floor it for a few seconds, really open it up and take off like a madman, and that apparently "unstuck" whatever was stuck. Back to normal now. Didn't even have to open the hood.
Anyway, the STOCK setup uses that complicated as hell vacuum system to open the secondary throttle. The primary is still done with your gas pedal cable. What DarkHand discovered, though, is that when you do a devac and link that diaphragm arm that controls the secondary to the vacuum on the carb, it either weakens the secondary so it never kicks in, or it COULD provide enough that it holds it open permanantly, meaning you can't slow your engine down. That would be very bad. So he devised a system using zip ties (I did this myself, works great) that simply takes OFF the secondary vacuum diaphragm, doing aways with it (I hacksawed mine off the bracket) and now gives you mechanical control over it. It opens perfectly now as you push the throttle further, and no vacuum control to mess with. It actually DOES sound like your carb is working properly. The "bitch to start" can be fixed easily with a manual choke, of which I am a BIG fan. Other than the devac as a whole, it's the best thing I did with my carb. The electic/vacuum choke system is complicated. It works well enough, but after a devac it becomes far less predictable and reliable, I think. I forget off the top of my head which throat is primary vs secondary, but I THINK the secondary is the bigger one. The primary opens first when you pull the throttle cable. Look in the Carburetor Research thread to find that zip-tie mod, it's great.