engine won't rev

[Andy Bennett]

Hi Graham
Sorry to labour the point, but if you are getting 30mph in second gear then whether or not you are jiggling with the choke, and so perhaps have a mixture issue, revving is certainly not a fundamental problem, as you must be revving its nuts off to get to 30mph in second, unless you aren't.
I wonder what speed you would get to in second if you didn't jiggle the choke. It might be that jiggling the choke is a false indicator, as you might be using to exceed reasonable performance expectations.
Can you do a baseline test, no choke jiggling, what speed to you get to in each gear, at reasonable revs, both on gauge and on sat nav. Then you have a baseline which others may be able to help you from, as right now I am not sure that it is really clear what the car is actually achieving.
I also wonder about your brake comment, there should be no friction at all when not operating the brakes. Wheels should spin freely, not just rotate by hand. I set mine so that when you manually tug on the cable you get about 5mm of movement before the shoe bites, effectively slack in the cable. This gives some free movement in the system before anything binds up.
Andy