Carb Probs

["Joseph M. Shaw, II" <MikeIIDC@domain.elided>]

Well, Dan and Dennis-

Appears we are the only lonely losers to chat this weekend.  Howard
answered a question, but we know that he is responsible and has
something resembling a real lifestyle, so he probably sits home in front
of the fireplace and watches football, occasionally checking his
computer.  (Don't kill me, Howard!)
Anyway, I took that carb apart again to see if I could find any leaky
points/find out how loose that screw on the bottom is.  Well, when I had
reassembled the carb, I had coated the screw with weld bond before
sticking it in the hole and tightening the rest of the screws down. 
When I was reassembling, I found that this had indeed been more than
sufficient, as the throttle body was still tightly in place, and this
screw was very tight and I was unable to remove it.  I fear that this is
not my problem.
This carb is a Holley 2210.  I think Mandera recently mentioned having
one of these on one of his beasts, so if noone else can understand what
I say from this point on, I expect Mandera to save the day.  I am going
out now to bend the arm and see if it helps, but I am accepting all
advice in the event that this doesn't work!
I would try to exhibit some patience, but a really cute girl actually
wants me to go to a "gathering" and hang out with her.  Therefore, I
don't care if I have to waste three tanks of gas to drive the fifteen
miles, I am going!  Things have been kind of slow lately, if you know
what I mean!  I would drive to New York if a girl would say, "Hi!" at
this point.  To Hell with finding Dan a girl-I need to find me a girl!
So anyway, I took the top of the carb off, and checked the float.  It
was set about right, as per how I had set it originally, and how the
instructions said to set it.  Because it had worked fine for some
months-though not driven heavily, driven enough to know that the carb
was working-I assumed that my initial settings had not been the problem.
When driving down the highway today it had begun to hesitate while
running at speed.  It was not an extreme hesitation, but was stalling
enough that I immediately turned around and headed home.  Made it home
fine, and ran some errands in town, but was afraid to take it out on the
highway again.
Anyway, after reassembling, I noticed that the arm that pumps the bowl
vent under acceleration was bent a little and was not pumping the vent
at all.  Could this be the problem.  It did not contact it a whole heck
of a lot when it was running well at any point.  Even before I ever took
it apart for the first time eons ago.  It just moves a fraction of an
inch and "toggles" the pump vent a little.  Now it does not move the
vent at all.  This could be from the pump arm being bent, or it could be
from the linkage that connects this to the throttle body pivot being
bent too straight.
Regardless, I am not sure if anyone knows these well enough to know what
I am talking about or not, but I am not sure what to do.  Whatever the
problem is, it appears that there is moisture on the outer gasket edges
from the top of the tank and from the throttle body to the bowl section
of the carb.  I am hoping that something about this mixed up  vent pump
could be causing too much pressure in the bowl, and this could be
forcing too much fuel through the carb.  This could push traces of gas
out where they shouldn't go, force more gas through to slightly flood
the engine causing a minor hesitation, and cause my gas mileage to thus
be decreased which is what I noticed even before I noticed it start to
run rough.
Anybody have any ideas?

Michael