New Carburetor Installed a few questions

[Chain Driven]

Hello new member here. I inherited a 78 GMC vandura. 350 cid. Was running a little rough under load so I did the usual plugs, wires, cap, rotor seemed to help but not altogether. So I looked at the carb...38 year old Quadra-jet...Time for it to go....So I got a good deal on a new edelbrock...Here's where it gets interesting
 
The engine compartment is packed there is no fender to fender. just the dog house. I had to tweak the trans fill tube up to get the choke body in...the carbs in now...the engine is running well. choke works well just a few things
 
First is the throttle return spring. with all the other stuff I had to put on the throttle lever, cruise control, trans kickdown, and throttle cable the return spring must face forward and in order to do it right air conditioner pump is right in the way....Can I remove this pump without capping the lines....anything I need to know here? The clutch is removed anyway so I'm not going to use no belt on it etc
 
Second is I installed an edelbrock air cleaner. I opted for the smaller one as the big one wouldn't fit due to that same AC pump.....Anyway the old Quad-jet has a thermostatic air cleaner which was piped to a riser on the exhaust manifold.....what do I do with this? plug it nothing?
 
Third and probably least is the crankcase ventilation...it was hooked up on old air cleaner but I have seen these capped...do I need this ventilation? it might be difficult to filter with the new air cleaner
 
Any help would be appreciated....I'll try to get some pictures up as soon as Iget some batteries for the camera
 

[Chain Driven]

One more thing the way I have the return spring hooked up now throttle lever wont return all the way after pumping accelerator

[Stewart G Griffin]

Too sleepy to help with the other stuff right now, but as far as the heat riser tubes you can plug those with screws of appropriate sizes.  There may be better ways which i'm not aware of.

i would defintely still run PCV (Positive crankcase ventilation)  if not seals could burst due to all the blow by pressure and that will get messy.....

You can put a breather in the valve cover where the tube use to run from the stock air cleaner.  This will take care of the air filtration.  Then  continue to run the pcv valve in the other valve cover connected to the appropriate port in the carb.

[ronmauer]

The thermostatic air cleaner was there to warm up the air going into the carb for colder weather operation. Nothing you need to do with piping, just remove loose tube.
    I have seen the PCV filter out of the air cleaner stuck in the valve cover. Should have some kind of filter to keep the dirt out. Yes you need the PCV system.
  If you remove the A/C compressor be careful as it may have refrigerant in it yet. You may want to take one of the charge port caps off and push the schrader valve and see if there is much pressure. You may know someone that like to recover the R12. You may want to put corks in the lines to keep the dirt out after you have the compressor off just in case you decide to put a compressor on again. 

[Chain Driven]

I'd post some pictures but it says the upload folder is full

[Chain Driven]

I got the air conditioning stuff all out which gave me a little more option on the return spring If you enlarge the picture you'll see the hose that goes down to the other valve cover...this is what I'm talking about....Do I need this? I've seen where people have just put a cap on the valve cover....The PCV to the carb is on the other valve cover

[Chain Driven]

If it'll post here's a picture from the front I'd like to remove this hose and then that riser ring on the carb for a cleaner look