Possible carb problems dying while driving, any ideas?

[K5trs]

It does have a owners manual I'll give it a read through. Hopefully it is just a flood. And my mechanical ability..pretty basic. Part of the reason I bought the truck was to learn because I heard these are good to learn on. And ya its the first carbed car I've owned
I appreciate the help so far!

 

[82355]

Did you get it to start yet?

Martin

 

[Fordum]

Right off the top of my head, it sounds like its flooded. Unless the cracked fuel line broke the rest of the way.......

If the fuel line is cracked in any way, stop trying to crank it and fix that.
Do that first.

Then, we need to eliminate the choke. Summer in New Mexico, unless you are on top of a mountain somewhere, its just in your way.
Don't worry, it will crank and run fine without it, and we will get it all hooked back up later.
If you have any knowledge about chokes, just open it up and tie it open for now. If not, pull the air cleaner off, and take a picture so we can see which type you have.

Most of the folks here know what you should have, but there is no telling what carb the PO might have put on there.

Once we get the choke out of the way, look down the throat of the carb, and work the throttle one time.
Engine off.
You should see some gas squirt into the open throat.

If so, put the air cleaner back on.

DO NOT try to crank the truck with the air cleaner off at this time. Carb fires from blowback are not all that bad if you get on them quick, but its a skill you don't need to learn right now.

While you are doing all this, have the battery on charge. When you try to crank it, it should spin fairly quickly.

If not, look at cleaning the terminals and maybe replacing the battery or using a jumpoff box.
Many times a truck will crank and run just fine with a hot battery, but fail to fire with just a mildly weak one.

If your coil or dist. is marginal, a half a volt difference may be the reason its not firing now.

 

[K5trs]

I won't get a chance to work in it until tomorrow. I'll be trying all this stuff until it starts..hopefully

 

[Fordum]

Quick thing to try tomorrow. If the battery is hot, and the fuel line is not cracked, just push the gas pedal all the way to the floor and hold it while you crank.

Don't pump it. If its flooded, it will usually start firing after about 30 seconds or so. If it cranks and sputters, hold the pedal down until it starts to rev good.

 

[K5trs]

But wouldn't the flood have cleared by now?

 

[Fordum]

But wouldn't the flood have cleared by now?

Not necessarily. If you have a lot of liquid gas in the cylinders, there is not a lot of place for it to go while sitting.
Plus, if you were pumping the gas, plus the choke was on, it just kept flooding.

If the choke is working right, it should open all the way when you push the pedal down all the way.
When you do that, you shoot another shot of gas in, but as long as you don't let up on the pedal, it should hold the choke open and not let much more gas in.

 

[K5trs]

Oh alright that makes sense. Bird season opened this weekend so it might be tomorrow when I get to work on it. I hope it's an easy fix though.

 

[Fordum]

Bird season opened this weekend so it might be tomorrow when I get to work on it.

Dove, quail, or humming?

 

[K5trs]

Haha dove. It should be a lot of fun I was gonna take my jimmy but guess that's not happening!

 

[Fordum]

Yep, Dove doesn't start down here until Oct.
You could always tow it.......

And don't knock Hummingbirds. Those little rascals are hard to hit. Takes no. 12 shot for the big ones, Dust for the others.

 

[K5trs]

Hahaha are humming birds tasty? And ya I'll just tow her out here and sit in it. I guess this stuff happens with older vehicles?

 

[Fordum]

Hahaha are humming birds tasty? And ya I'll just tow her out here and sit in it. I guess this stuff happens with older vehicles?

Only the tongues.........

Yeah, you can get an older vehicle pretty darn reliable, but you have to stay on top of it.

Of course, what you do with it matters too.
You can put 300,000 miles on one on the highway and never replace an axle.
Or you can replace 3 in 50 miles with hard enough offroad use.

The trick reliability is to always FIX everything that matters.

y5mgisi has stripped all the trim, glass, everything off his burb, done sheet metal work, sanded it, and its in the paint shop.

It should look great when he gets it out.

But it is not going to run one bit better than when it went in.

You can have a very reliable vehicle that looks great. But you have to pay attention to the running gear for it to be reliable.

As far as I know, his is in good shape run wise. So now he is doing the looks.

One nice thing about older vehicles like these, is that you can correct the problems that came from the factory.

With work and care, its possible to have one that is better than new.

For instance, down the road in your case, you might swap out to fuel injection.
Its a little trickier to work on than a carb, but is much less likely to flood, and can give some small power and mileage gains.

Or, if yours has the TH350 transmission, you could upgrade to a TH400 or the 700R4 to get overdrive.

Time has marched on, and there have been better things made. So you can pick and choose which ones you want to upgrade to.

BUT, first get what you have running well.

 

[K5trs]

I bet I can get her running haha! Aren't transmissions pretty hard to install?

 

[Fordum]

Depends on your equipment.
Shop equipment that is..........

I have seen it done in a dirt driveway by three guys and some beer. The only tools, other than the three guys, was a socket wrench.


On the other extreme, a good lift, air tools and a transmission jack, and you can often swap one in less than an hour.

Changing to a different style is a little harder, because you may have to have adapters.

Heck, like I posted somewhere here, I converted a pickup in the swamp from a column shift to a floor shift with a pair of vice grips, hammer, big nail, and an ax.

 

[K5trs]

So I could do it with the help of a friend or 2? Why do shops charge so much if I could do it in a drive way?

 

[Fordum]

Well, you could take out an appendix in the driveway too, but its best in a hospital. Check around here, and you will see lots of different procedures done.
The three guys in the dirt is pretty much a worst case situation.

Transmissions are heavy, and hard to move around. Jacks make it a lot easier, but don't roll in dirt.

Some of the guys here have just lay down under the truck with the transfer case or transmission on their chest and bench pressed it into place while someone else put in the bolts.

Quite doable, and it drove fine afterwards. But pretty much everyone who did it that way does not want to do it again.

Shops charge what they do, because they have to.

You could call a couple of friends, rent a transmission jack, and pay off the guys in beer.
The whole thing would be a one time expense.

Transmission shops have to pay wages, insurance, light bills, taxes, equipment costs for the stuff that wears out, maybe rent, and it all has to be paid whether they are installing transmissions or just sitting around waiting for a customer.

A lot of shops will work with you. If you have a rebuilt transmission ready to go, and there are not broken bolts to drill out, they might install it fairly cheap.

As long as you agree that they will only stand behind the install, not the transmission you supplied.

I had to replace the NP205 on my truck after the front yoke nut worked loose and let mud get past the seal.
It was certainly rebuildable, but it was hunting season, and I wanted it running.

I bought a rebuilt one, tossed it in the back and drove to a transmission shop I knew.
Talked to the manager, and one of the guys put it in on his lunch hour for $100.

More than worth it to me. He had a lift, tall jack, all the stuff to do it easy.

I would have been on my back on concrete with a floor jack and lots of cursing and blood.

205s are HEAVY.

 

[K5trs]

I have a friend who rebuilt a jeep cj-7 with his dad for the past 2 Years. His dad has all the equipment I would ever need and he said as long as I'm with his son I can borrow any tool I need. So I guess if it came down to it I could replace a transmission.

 

[K5trs]

Well I tried and I don't think it's flooded

 

[smier]

Well I tried and I don't think it's flooded

Ok, if we are going to be able to try and help you, you are going to have to give us something to go off of. Think overkill... What did you try? The more details you can give the less guessing is involved.

You say that you don't believe it's flooded, but are you 100% positive it's even getting fuel at all? Did you fix the cracked fuel line? Does the truck even have gas in the tank? Did you check for spark? Did you check the choke operation? Etc, etc... The more info the better. There's probably 100 reasons that could cause your truck to not start, but they would all be guesses at this point, and I hesitate to mention much for fear of sending you on a wild goose chase. Guys have given you the basics to start with, what did you find, and describe in detail how you did it and what you saw/heard/felt/smelled. Don't be afraid to ask questions, you're new at this, so we don't expect you to know everything. It's better to ask!

Don't get discouraged, we have all been in your shoes, and all started out at some point just like you. The quicker we can get this thing running the sooner you can start enjoying your first vehicle. Did you call the guy you bought it off of? Truthfully, if I bought a truck and it died the next day, I'd be pissed!