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This whole fuel issue is weird, so I have a hole drilled in my gas cap which for now at least, temporarily fixes the issue of pressure / vacuum in the tank. But, I am still having the strange issue that when I try to restart the truck after it sitting a while, it might start and idle really poorly, floods gas out the carb and I have to wait a few minutes, before holding foot to the floor to get going again.
Yesterday for example... start the truck, drive to gas station, put some fuel in, start it back up with minimal fuss, drive to destination, park for about 90 minutes. Go to start it to head home and idle poorly, cuts out (I try to keep it running by modulating the throttle until I feel the idle smooth, but not always successful), pop the hood and see and smell fuel coming out the carb, even this time a white smoke coming out the air cleaner snorkel. Let it sit 5 minutes, pump the pedal twice, foot to the floor, bunch of cranking and it starts with a backfire and then idles fine and drives home without issue.
Someone suggested something is getting heat soaked, maybe as it sits the fuel is heating and then when I go to start it, the pressure from the pump + the built up pressure from the heated fuel blows it past the needle?
I wrapped the metal fuel line from the filter up to the carb in heat shroud yesterday, not sure it will be effective, but figure it can't hurt. Such a frustrating problem to be dealing with currently.
The truck is flooding for some reason. I'm thinking the choke is closing when it shouldn't be. If your truck was fully warmed up and sat for 90 minutes in the heat or warm weather, The choke if it did close it should only be very slightly and have no effect on flooding. I'm thinking the choke may be set to tight.
Setting chokes is often a stroke of luck. In your case with an aftermarket choke you may have to play with the tension. I recall taking customer's cars for a few days letting it cool and adjust several times over until it was right. The round rod gauges Chrysler had to set the choke pull-offs was as good as a sun dial. It got you in the area but not exact.
Set at 4psi, the place that did the work took it for a drive a few times and had no issues, so hopefully I have the same. Cold, well warm ambient, start this morning when I picked it up I did not even find I needed to use the choke, just turned the key and it fired right up and idled smoothly.
Oil leak appears to be the right valve cover is bent slightly on the flange, so I will pull that at some point and with a block of wood hammer it straight.
They also fixed the exhaust being loose, apparently the previous owner used a sleeve to join 2 sections together, but just simply slipped the sleeve on and did not actually tighten or fasten it with anything.
Do any of you happen to know if there is a way to determine if the AC is still using R22? While the AC system works, the air is not cold leading me to believe there is little to no refrigerant left in the system. I know there are conversions available, but have no idea if this was converted (doubtful), but would like to know what is in there so I can figure out how to proceed.
Most of the time I drive it I will have the windows down, with how hot it has been lately though, sure would be nice to just turn the AC on and be cooled down.
It may be easier to just have your local A/C shop test the Freon and see what’s already in the system?
Maybe it’s already R134 and the tag under the hood just fell off?
Might be the simplest option, there is a local place I use for the house that have always been good, not sure they do anything with vehicles but they might be worth a call even if it is just to check out what is in the system.
I know the R12 uses the smaller high low valves and I believe the R22 should have the smaller Shrader valve and the R134a should have the larger valves.
If it is low then there is a leak. Depending on how long it has been low and where the leak is it likely has air in the system. Air in the system turns refrigerant into acid and will destroy the compressor. Just filling it up means it will leak out again and possibly cause more damage. Better to take it to a professional who can repair leak and evacuate air from system.
Exactly. Going to put the AC on the backburner for now, depending on where the leak ends up being and the cost of recharging with either R12 or R22 (I am fairly certain it has not been converted to R134a due to the Schrader valves) I might look into what is needed to convert it over.
The fuel pressure regulator, knock on wood, so far appears to have helped cure the flooding after it has sat for a while. I have driven it a number of times and had it parked for anywhere from 10 minutes to 7 hours and tried restarting without any problems, I am still a little apprehensive about it happening again, since it did seem to be somewhat random, but keeping my fingers crossed.
Pulled the rear bumper off the other day to try and straighten it some and give it a re-spray back to the silver that it once was. Not 100% happy with how it came out, repairing the dented section looks to be nigh on impossible as it appears the bumper took a hit and twisted some. Stripped off as much of the old paint as I could, sprayed with a silver, which now with it being one color instead of various shades of chipping black paint I can see all the flaws in the bumper. Long term I want to swap it out with a smaller chrome one to match the front, so have to keep telling myself that it looks better than it did and is only temporary, but it is also a bit of an eye sore!
Currently trying to track down a sway bar for the front, it did not come with one and I would like to add one for the handling improvements. Found an aftermarket unit for over $300, but looking to see if there is anything factory that I might be able to find at a junk yard.
That's what I am thinking, just need to find some time to call a few yards and see if one will ship the bar to me. Then figure out bushings and end links, but that should not be terribly difficult.
Remember a while back me mentioning it randomly cutting out? it's still doing that, I thought I noticed it the other day but it was so brief I wasn't sure. I've driven it likely 100 miles recently and overall it's been great.
However, yesterday out for a ride and noticed it did cut out with the turn signal on. I remembered it doing that when turning at the end of my street, so turn signal on, engine cuts momentarily. Seems mostly the left signal, but I did get to do it turning right as well. It just cuts out really briefly, but seems that I can recreate it.
This morning I pulled the steering column cover and checked the wiring from the connector beneath the dash to a could inches from the stalk, connector and wires look in good shape. Tried to pull the steering wheel to inspect the stalk itself but my puller doesn't fit.
I didn't yet check the wire going through the firewall, already getting dang hot in the garage this morning.
Checked and cleaned the core support grounds, already clean but figured no harm in checking.
I'll probably see about getting a different puller sometime this weekend and check the stalk itself. Going to also see if the engine cuts out while using the wipers, it doesn't if I have the headlights on, or the radio, blower fan etc.
Anything you guys can think of that might help figure this head scratcher out?
Thats very odd.... Simply because the turn signal switch and the ignition switch are two seperate switches....
Take a look at at the voltage at the coil with your DVOM meter while recreating the stalling issue and see if the voltage changes when you activate the turn signal switch and just before the stalling apiaries..
You could be onto something, there is a slight possibility of a wiring issue down in the column ? but i'm doubtful..
I don't think the turn signal is your problem. If fully warmed up its hesitating on turns that is characteristic of a float setting set too low. If its doing it on a half warmed up engine the choke may be opening too quickly and causing a hesitation.
My 383 does that all the time until fully warmed up. It's quite common on carburetor engines.
Yeah it's definitely not something you hear every day! I checked the tail light plug under the hood earlier and while a little grubby, that wasn't terrible. Replaced the hazard relay, I had noticed that acting real odd (lights flashing too fast, barely illuminating) and now they are working much better.
Going to swap out the turn signal relay as well just to rule that out, but didn't have a spare on hand.
I did discover that the left turn signal bulb in the dash isn't working, but I'm in no mood to pull that all out again just yet.
It's tuff to quarterback from the bench and diagnose.
I have a story. Tuned up a Plymouth Arrow fully with adjusting valves etc. years back. Guy went to back it out and it would stall when he put the emergency brake down.
I actually pulled the rug up and no wires in sight. I placed a jumper cable on the negative to the body and the problem stopped. Turned out the negative from the battery clamped to the body before its final stop. The clamp rusted through and it must have loosened up with me working around in the engine compartment.
This is one of the many reasons I push grounds grounds and clean grounds. A bad ground can cause all kinds of issues.
It's tuff to quarterback from the bench and diagnose.
For sure, having the replies you and others post though is invaluable to helping track things down. Battery main ground and the ground at the core support are clean. Are there any others that I can potentially get at and clean?
Doesn't help that I'm still finding random wires seemingly going nowhere all over the truck. Found a larger purple wire near the fuse box that goes nowhere, 3 or 4 wires behind the rear bumper (although I think these may have been for trailer wiring).
Toyota trucks in the late 70s and early 80s were arcing the manual transmission input bearing. The trucks had a poor ground from driveline to negative. It would ground through the tranny but cause an arc while spinning. Toyota looked as if it had a tranny issue, but it was a ground issue. I bought my wife a new Mazda in 85. The first thing I did was run direct from the negative to both engine and body. It couldn't hurt any.
For sure, having the replies you and others post though is invaluable to helping track things down. Battery main ground and the ground at the core support are clean. Are there any others that I can potentially get at and clean?
Doesn't help that I'm still finding random wires seemingly going nowhere all over the truck. Found a larger purple wire near the fuse box that goes nowhere, 3 or 4 wires behind the rear bumper (although I think these may have been for trailer wiring).
Not that your at this point yet.... Sometimes its better to remove those wires and cap them off with a butt connector, just in case you need to add it back later. Or roll it up out of the way if you know for sure the wire is good and solid with a butt connector on the end. This way you know your not chasing your tail on bad wiring... Just my point of view...
That's pretty much what I have been doing as I identify them...
Random wire not connected at either end - remove it
Random wire not connected at one end, but connected on the other - cut off any excess (especially in the case of poor condition wiring), cap it and then wrap neatly in electrical tape.
Currently there are I think 3 wires I need to trace and see if they are connected at the other end, one in the engine bay and 2 under the dash.
Decided to try and revisit the slight vacuum leak from the rear of the carb.... trying to loosen one of the carb nuts that is on a stud and the stud is turning. There is a little blob of paint on the top and I can clearly see that rotate as I try to loosen the nut.
I can easily tighten it back up, so I do not believe that it is cross threaded, however I am not sure whether to remove the nut / stud entirely (and then remove the other nut and 2 bolts to remove the carb) then separate the nut from the stud and reinstall the stud back into the block. Or if it is not going to be as simple as that.
Studs are usually safe to remove. A stud works on a different principle than a bolt. Studs do not need to be over tightened. In fact, too tight of a stud defeats the purpose of using a stud. A stud instead loosely grabs all the threads that are inserted, whereas a tightened bolt gets its tightness and strength at the very tip of the bolt. That's why some race engines use studs for their heads in very high compression engines or with blowers on them. The short answer is a loose stud is normal.
I might try to remove the carb when the weather cools down then, as I said, I can tighten the carb nut back up. I would think if the stud threads were stripped on the manifold, that it would simply keep, turning, so maybe I can carefully remove it and try to get the vacuum leak taken care of and then use maybe a little blue loctite to hold the stud back into the manifold.
Installed a new turn signal relay earlier, the old one had some rust discoloration on the bottom of it, I doubt it will resolve the weird shutting off issue, but at least I know the relay is good. I also went ahead and completed an HEI module retrofit, overall not too terrible a job to do. When I first started it the truck idled poorly, but I recall reading somewhere that if it did that the terminals going to the distributor are backwards and needed to be swapped. Which I did, swapped them over and the engine fired up and idled nicely. Hoping to go out for a quick test drive later, but might not have time.
I do think I might need to replace a positive cable coming from the battery, there appears to be what looks like a fuse on a larger orange cable, while installing the HEI module I noticed this orange cable coming out of the inline fuse holder has damaged insulation. Not entirely sure what it is yet, I need to trace it to see where it goes and then get it replaced.
Moving in the right direction for sure!! Like I said, the stud is not a problem, hand tightening it into the manifold is sufficient. When you tighten the nut down it pulls upwards on the stud holding it in place.
06-17-2024, 07:31 AM
I don't think the turn signal is your problem. If fully warmed up its hesitating on turns that is characteristic of a float setting set too low. If its doing it on a half warmed up engine the choke may be opening too quickly and causing a hesitation. 
