How can one be "at" a good mechanic? The person could be "at" the location the good mechanic is "at".

Or not.....

Update: I still haven't solved this, but I haven't been focused on it either, lately. Too many other things going on. But I did take it to a cruise the other night and while I was there, I tinkered with a few vacuum hoses. I pulled the one off the manifold that connects to the heater control and sucked on it. It offered a lot of resistance, but I could still keep sucking air through it. I am going to investigate this further this week. It may be leaking just enough to cause the power valve in the carburetor to not function properly.

quadrabogs is what I remember.

Yep, Rottenchester Quadrajunk carburetors is how I used to know them.
But once I learned a few things, I found that they're actually a very good carburetor if properly tuned. When not working right, or out of tune, it's no better than any other carb that's in the wrong application or poorly tuned.
Mark D.