Carburetor Recommendations Anyone???

[76sierraclassic]

My '76 is still a stock 350 with th350 tranny and the original Rochester Q-jet 4bbl carb with the automatic choke. It has almost 140,000 miles on it, and I'm having a little bit of carburetor trouble. I'm thinking a rebuild or replacement may be in order, and I'm just wondering if anyone has any suggestions. I don't want to spend a lot of money, and I don't necessarily need/want to "upgrade".

I'm fairly mechanically inclined, but I've never really worked on carburetors before. How hard would it be to rebuild it? I think the automatic choke is messed up too. How hard are they to work on/replace?

Since I've never worked on a carb before, I was also considering picking up a used q-jet to rebuild off-line. That way I would at least have a working carb in the original if I happen to screw something up. What do you guys think? If this is a good idea, how can I know what all q-jets are interchangeable with mine. The numbers on mine are 17056208 and 0866 ABT.

Any recommendations or advice will be appreciated.

Thanks,
Mike