M38 Cdn Carb Help

[Peter Phillips]

Thought I'd try this community to help troubleshoot my carb issues. Here's the situation:
1. Jeep wouldn't idle when coming out of hibernation but "ran when parked".
2. After talking to the PO, it was determined that the existing carb rebuild was over 10 years old but still worked OK last Fall.
3. I had a NOS kit from Brian Asbury which I installed after blowing out all the ports etc with carb cleaner and compressed air.
4. I set the float to 1/4" with a homemade cardboard gauge across the carb top with the float resting on the needle and spring.
5. Air idle screw set to 1 turn out.
6. I checked the delivery from the fuel pump and it seemed to fill a mason jar easily while cranking.

Still wouldn't idle but seemed to run fine with the choke almost completely closed but very rich as you can well imagine. The throttle response is very crisp when it does run.
Here's where I really started grasping at ideas including a few more tear downs and full blow outs and even resorted to swapping back to the original needle and seat and re-adjusting the float height.
I even ran it through the ultrasonic cleaner to see if that would help.....nada.
I'm outta ideas here folks. I'm no stranger to carb work and I've tried all my tricks to no avail.
I do have a parts carb that I may clean up and try...can't hurt.