Stock Autolite Carb problems

The best way is to get a kneeling stand such as is sold by Johnnie Woods. It fits over the ZF so you can reach over the engine supporting youreslf by the elbows. Unless you have extremely long arms, this is your only choice for working on the carb, throttle linkage/cable or the distributor. A poor second is a piece of cut plywood to fit over the ZF, or a thick mover's blanket. Both can damage the ZF vent tube. With any platform, be careful of feet contacting the rear brake hard lines- they can be inadvertently cracked.

Bosswrench-thanks for getting me started and pointing out which door to use-in this case the back door. Anybody you know that can help me with this carb as I prepare to dive in?

The power valve is situated near the bottom of the fuel bowl; it's calibrated to allow a richer mixture as manifold vaccum drops. It sound like the power valve is leaking; thus emptying the fuel bowl overnight & requiring priming the next day as you desribe. I've tried both Autolite & Holley on my 351C; the Autolite is superior. JMO.

Welcome Marauder64,

You have a whole lot of tech buddies here and Bosswrench is one of the best.

I too had the original carb on my car but changed it out for other reasons.

I am not home right now I am in Dallas TX but I will be home in 2 days. I bought a carb rebuild kit from AutoZone (tell them 351c mustang or torino) it is not hard to do, when I get home I will upload you the photo/scan of the instruction page and part number of the kit I used.

I do have long arms but I found out if you blanket the exterior, pull the engine screen off, and close the rear decklid, stand on a couple of 2x10s... it is not to bad, in case you don't want to get inside the engine bay on the kneeling stand.

As for the leak it could be the pump look for stains on the carb, as for the empty bowl in the morning it could be the leak or it runs down the inside of the intake. Take the carb off and rebuild it. PM me with your e-mail and I will send you some files on what I have.

Marauder, you have a long, tough row to hoe in finding a competent tuner that can deal with your Autolite 4300 from the late '60s/early '70s. Most carb tuners today work with Holleys although a few work with Demons and Edelbrock/Carter AFBs. Next is a competent Weber carb tuner and maybe Rochester q-jets. The least worked upon carb seems to be your Autolite, or the later Motorcraft equivalent. Indeed, there aren't many top-line carb tuners of any kind these days since the advent of cheap DIY EFI kits (all based on a Holley baseplate).
There are some do-it-yourself kits available for Autolite/Motorcraft carbs, but if something is broken or missing inside the assembly or in the linkage (or the kit), the DIY-er may not notice and the kit will be wasted. Lots of old Autolite/Motorcraft carbs are available free for the asking from Ford owners, which says something about their popularity, but at least repair parts might be available that way.
Your local Library will have a Chilton's Repair Manual on file covering 1970-75 which might help if you are determined to get the thing running decently yourself.
A bad carb can be extremely frustrating. A few years ago, I spend 6 full weeks trying to get a modified Pantera to run decently. I swapped a total of SIX different carbs from my shop onto the motor, and the only one that worked acceptibly was a tuner-700 Holley DP from Judy's car. So in desperation I bought a second one- and from the time I first fired the engine, it ran perfectly. This carb was specifically modified to work on a 351-C in a Pantera. Something like 23 different changes were put into what Holley sells out of the box. Not cheap but worth it. Good luck in your quest.