[Moorek]

I have been trying to troubleshoot a problem with my '86 Trooper. It is running rough and has intermittent light black smoke coming out the tailpipe. Plugs, wires, cap, rotor and fuel filter are fairly new. Pulled the plugs and #1 looks great (brown paper bag color). Plugs #2 - 4 are dark black. I have not identified any vacuum leaks, but it actually runs better if I pull off a vacuum line. My hunch is that I have some trash in the carb causing it to run rich. What do you think? Is there an easy way to clean the carb without completely rebuilding it? (I wish I had $400 for a WEBER!)

 

[bigpoppax2]

If the carb is running rich they all would read rich. You may have a plug gap problem. Check your gap and also check your timing. It's odd that you have one plug that reads good.

Joe