Secondaries Not Opening on Quadrajet

We got our 'new' 71 Coupe about ten days ago and I thought that passing gear wasn't working on the Hydramatic 400 transmission, but it appears to be working OK.  I don't think that the secondaries are opening under wide open throttle.  The choke is pulling the lockout lever out of the way after the engine is warmed up, but the secondaries don't appear to be working properly.  As you can probably tell, I don't know diddly about carburetors. 

Thanks Ron!  The spring pressure that must be overcome to open the secondaries is currently very strong. Perhaps it is too much.

I hav found some information on q jets through a search

1 is www.florida4x4.com/carb.htm

2 is www.bob2000.com/caba.htm I think this one it the best writtin  by Lars.He breakes the systems down by what it does and how they complement one another. And tells you how to do it. It brought my head out of the sand. Enjoyhave fun Jack

Open the secondary air valve plate, and look down in the rear of the carb. With the throttle at full open, the secondaries should be almost straight up & down. They are not designed to be open straight up & down, like the primaries are, at full throttle. The front edge of the sec. throttle blades should be even with the little "diveter" in the bore of the secondaries. This is a thin, sheet metal piece that is just under the air valve. It sits verticle, and goes across the rear throttle bores.

The spring ya'll talking about is for the tension on the air valve itself, and has nothing to do with the actual secondary throttle blades opening. It's purpose is to allow the carb to still create a vaccuum signal when the huge secondaries do open. Be carefull with the adjusting of this, as it can get tricky to get set just right. In all my years of doing quads, I've only made adjustments on the air-valve tension maybe twice.

If the choke linkage/lock-out is dropping, but the sec. blades are not opening, they may simply be stuck. It happens a lot on quadrapukes, because the secondaries don't really get opened that often, in NORMAL driving. Try to tap them open with a screwdriver, or wooden paint mixer(etc), with the throttle held open, and see if that gets them opening. If so, then maybe a good shot-o-Berrymans will dissolve the doo-doo in there.

dam spel chek Adams' Apple38721.849537037

I will have to check the throttle cable adjustment to make sure that the secondaries are wide open when the pedal is to the metal (floor).  I goosed the throttle wide open briefly several times this afternoon and the lower  butterflies in the secondary barely opened.  Does this make sense? proracr38721.9028703704

Yes, it do(except the "metal" part). Check the cable adj. first, and then start diggin deeper.