Basic Tuning: HELP!

Which Edelbrock carb do you have? Did you buy it new or second hand? The needle that will not bottom out... If you remove the spring and thread it in, will it seat eventually? Have you tried swapping the mixture screw preload springs to see if it's the wrong spring? If the throttle plates are closed the engine should die. If the mixture screws are turned in too far, the engine shold die. I think you're paying way too much attention to the secondary link rod and timing. It's fine where it is.