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Battery was the problem with starting, turned the key and it fired up nicely this morning. Set the timing at 8 degrees currently, idle sounding pretty smooth. Going to get some fuel and take it for a test drive hopefully later today, the tank is a little too low for me to want to risk driving to the gas station currently... I think it has enough, but I also don't want to risk it. Especially with everything else changed recently, I want to know that fuel (or something else silly, like a battery) are not the cause of any potential driving issues.
Hopefully, later today or tomorrow my next message will be it driving nicely.
Threw a couple gallons of gas in it and backed out of the garage for a test drive. Hmm gas pedal feels real stiff compared to what it was, not a big deal though could be the spring is in the wrong place, or was in the wrong place before, not sure, but that's easy enough to figure out or calibrate my foot. Turn around, put it in drive to go up the hill from the shop and it cuts out, try again, cuts out, back up some more, take a bit of a run up and up to the top.
Down the road about half a mile to a parking lot, turn around to come home, cuts out, in the middle of the road. Crap. Luckily it starts up easily, started up and came back home.
Pulled the timing a little more, basically listening to the engine as I turned the distributor, looks to be around 15 degrees per the light I have (I am not sure how accurate the light I have is, it's a Harbor Freight tool). Had to get back to work, but I may try another quick drive this evening if I can. If it makes it up the hill from the shop without cutting out, I'll know it's an improvement!!
Started it up after work, first test, getting to the top of the drive, no issues, no hesitation.
Went for about a 6 mile drive, no issues at all, gets up to speed nicely (45mph). There's a slight whistle still from the rear of the carb, but it's running nicely.
Didn't see any more smoke, so hopefully I got the gasket issue resolved as well.
These phases were studied at length over the years and faced by people like us daily.
3 phases of repair work
1. The excitement of the challenge
2. The frustration and aggravation of the repair
3. The exhaustion stage where you sit back and enjoy your accomplishment.
I snugged the carb bolts down a little more this morning, the manual I have says 16ftlb but no way to get a torque wrench (at least none I have) in there, so just gave them another quarter turn with a wrench. Hoping to get the whistle figured out, but happy that it is running nicely right now.
Last edited by Abcdefghii; 05-08-2024 at 11:14 AM.
No whistling, looks like I just needed to tighten the carb a little more. Backed out of the garage earlier and made sure to rev it up a little, no whistling so went for a short drive, cruises along nicely.
Will be interesting to see if I get better fuel mileage now. Carb rebuild was well worth the money spent!
Went to go for a drive the other day, the truck did not want to get up the driveway without stalling again, I think the choke is opening too quickly, the weather was a little colder than the last time I took it for a drive, not cold by any stretch, but certainly colder. The truck started fine, backed out the garage without issue, but trying to then get up the driveway it just kept cutting out when I was trying to get up the hill. I adjusted the choke slightly, but have not yet had time to go for a drive.
Noticed while making some adjustments that it started smoking again from the passenger side rear of the engine. This time though, I noticed that coolant was dripping out of the connection there, hitting the hot exhaust manifold and burning off, so not smoke, but steam. I tightened the clamp up and let the engine run yesterday until it was good and hot, no drips and feeling under the hose it is dry, so hopefully just a loose clamp, maybe I knocked it slightly pulling the valve cover but hopefully all good now.
I also ordered and installed a new mini high torque starter, that needed a slight modification to the terminal on the solenoid wire to fit the stud, other than that a simple install and while I never felt the truck start slowly before (other than it dragging slightly when warm) it starts instantly now.
Finally, the question... where does the horn wiring go? I have 2 horns mounted on the drivers fender, with about 8" of wire not connected to anything. While not a big deal, it would be nice to get the horn wired up. But, I don't see where the wiring should go. Here is what I have:
The blue wire should go somewhere, but not sure if it goes back in through the cab and the horns are grounded by the bracket to the fender.
Edited to add:
Went for a drive yesterday evening, it's raining lightly, but decided what the heck. No problems getting going this time up the drive from the garage, I had adjusted the choke slightly but also didn't wait but just backed out, turned around and went. The wipers decided to first start sweeping erratically and then stop entirely, so i turned around after about 3 miles.
Decided when I got home to give them a nudge and listen for the motor. Put it in park, hit the switch, they work perfectly, smooth full sweep. Turn it off and on again, still working, weird. Maybe the motor on it's last legs or the switch is acting up.
Another strange thing I've noticed a couple times, when making a sharp turn I'll hear what sounds like a relay clicking multiple times from somewhere. Can't quite place where yet, only thing I can think of is a turn signal relay so I'll have to figure that out.
Driving was fine though, so that's good.
Last edited by Abcdefghii; 05-15-2024 at 04:09 AM.
Those horns work off a relay. Is there a relay on the radiator support? If that doesn't help, maybe find a similar year and see how the horns are connected.
I don't see a relay anywhere, I do hear one clicking when I push the horn pad though, sounds like it is coming from the fuse box area. Interestingly, the steering wheel pad is incredibly sensitive, if I run my thumb with light pressure across it from one side to the other, it will trigger the relay at least 3 times. I half wonder if the PO was having issues with it being too sensitive and simply cut the wiring out.
The relay in fact, is so odd, it will sometimes click when turning the steering wheel and not even touching the center. At the weekend I will pull the fuse box down and see if I can determine which relay it is, as well as pull the horn pad and see if I can determine why it is so sensitive.
Horn wire should be apart of the wiring harness that runs up on the underside of the core support..
not 100% sure but I believe they were mounted on the right hand side front side of the support?
Maybe this is a clue, so I peeled back a little of the cover on what would be the top left of the radiator and found this cut wire (circled in green) it's maybe half an inch sticking out there:
The wire circled in orange, loops back and is grounded on the side of the core support with a couple other wires. I am not sure if that cut wire is the other end of the horn wire, nor how it interacts with the relay I can hear clicking under the steering wheel. Maybe if I can confirm that is the positive wire for the horn, I can temporarily run a wire from the horn to there and see if it works pushing the pad on the wheel. Then just need to figure out why it is incredibly sensitive.
I suspect the steering wheel is not original, but not certain, seems like they changed in 81, so perhaps mine was an early build with an older steering wheel.
Last edited by Abcdefghii; 05-15-2024 at 01:05 PM.
Well, that one cut wire is the horn wire, ran a temporary wire and pressing the button on the steering wheel the horn works. So looks like the plan will be:
Remove horn pad and try to figure out why it is so sensitive.
Strip harness back enough to correctly replace the wire running to the horn.
Done.
Last edited by Abcdefghii; 05-16-2024 at 07:50 AM.
The nice thing about doing all this fixing now is that down the road when you have trouble with this vehicle you will have so much experience with it that you will be able to zone in on the problem quickly.
Took it out for a drive to dinner last night, running really nicely. The only issue I had was that after dinner it had issues starting, cranked fine, but wouldn't start. Had a friend who was there with me watch while I cranked the engine and he could see fuel dumping out of the carb, essentially flooded.
The electric fuel pump runs continuously as soon as the ignition is on, each time I tried starting it, more fuel was getting dumped into the carb. What eventually worked was quickly turning the ignition on and off, probably 20 or so times, that helped pull the fuel in the carb down and then as I turned the key, my friend bumped the throttle and it started, idled and ran just fine.
I think I need to get a fuel pressure gauge on it to measure the fuel and potentially figure out where to install a regulator.
Other than that one issue, which prevented me going across the street to fill up on high octane ethanol free fuel, it ran wonderfully.
I'd be surprised if the electric fuel pump is to blame. You said it put out less than 10lbs. I have the stock fuel pump with an electric assist pump that I use after sitting for a period of time. I often forget to shut it off and with the 2 pumps it doesn't flood out. The needle and seat should prevent that. To check to see if you're getting fuel dumped in under too much pressure you should.............. With the key on (fuel pump running) while looking down the carb you shouldn't see any fuel going in unless you're cranking it over or while running.
1.Starting warm, the choke should be wide open
2. You should have your foot on the gas pedal slightly depressed when starting a carburetor car.
A caution again is, a flooded engine gets fuel in the oil which is not good for many reasons.
Choke was wide open, I checked that while trying to get it started. I did not have the pedal slightly depressed, I'm planning to go for a drive sometime soon, get it good and warm, but go home and stop, then restart at home with it up to temp.
Just curious on something, would it make sense to install a kill switch on the fuel pump wiring? A couple reasons for it, one, if the engine floods I can then turn the key without it continually adding fuel to the carb to help clear it, additionally, in the case of an accident I can shut off the fuel, finally, it also adds a little security. There is already a toggle switch mounted under the dash I can utilize, I would just need to cut into the fuel pump power wire and run that to one side of the switch.
Yes, it would make sense. I have an on/off lighted switch on my electric fuel pump. Modern cars are mandated by federal law to have an impact switch that shuts the fuel off during a crash. It could serve as a security and safety switch.
I don't believe I can connect the hardline that enters the carb onto this without finding some adapters, but I believe I could disconnect the line where it exits the filter and connect this to the rubber line there, or ahead of the filter, whichever is easier to access. Are those good options to check the fuel pressure? Connect the gauge, turn on the ignition, read fuel pressure.
Yes, you can read the fuel pressure just by having the key on engine off. I'm quite certain the pressure you said earlier it was creating shouldn't be a problem. I wonder why the mechanical pump isn't hooked up.
If you read the description at the link for the fuel tank it specifies - "Fuel tank requires the use of electric In-Tank Retrofit Fuel pump Recommended In-Tank Retrofit Fuel pump for carbureted engines - part # 12-129"
So, that's why the mechanical pump is no longer hooked up (or installed).
In other news, this happened:
I had been looking for one casually, most info I can find online, but I found both of these for $9 which seemed like a great deal.
And in other even better news...
Originally Posted by Kuvasz101
Without the pedal depressed most old time Mopars with carbs won't fire up.
That works perfectly. Started from cold this morning and it did not start first try, pushed the gas pedal a little, fired right up. Went for a drive to get it up to temperature, got home, parked for an hour, engine still warm, pressed the gas pedal slightly, turn the key, fired right up. Tried again after another 30 minutes, yep, starts just fine.
What I am not sure I understand is what changed to make me need to do that, before, especially on cold starts, I did not need to push the gas pedal at all. Just press it once to set the choke and starts right up, same with it warm. I know I have changed a bunch lately, not least of which is the carb rebuild, so perhaps something there changed it. Either way, there may be light at the end of the tunnel.
Last edited by Abcdefghii; 05-21-2024 at 10:13 AM.
05-07-2024, 08:03 AM
