Running lean & no response from the egr

[camoit]

Ok on the carb you should see a plunger on the drivers side. It has an arm or linkage connected to it. It is round about 1/2 inch or so. It will open up with the throttle via the linkage. The idea behind it was to better control the flow of EGR gas. So the EGR will open and then allow the gas to flow to the carb where the slider can regulate the amount. So in order to check the operation of the EGR you need to pull a vacuum on the EGR valve to make it open. Then pull out the slider. Then the engine will start to run like crap showing the gas passages are open and working.
The EGR is to reduce the NOx the combustion process makes. Put a vacuum gauge on the intake and get a manifold vacuum reading for us. We want a nice steady needle not whipping back and forth.