Jeff Balazs

Have you tried running a 160 thermostat to see how it behaves? Jeff

Fernando; Over the years I have seen a few rotors stuck on over a piece of tin foil. At best it is a "make do" fix until you find the correct item. Maybe OK to limp home on.....definitely not the right way to leave it. When you find the correct items it will fit properly. Jeff

Hank; I bought a good oil filled one and have it mounted to the steering column just like you might mount a tach. I don't have any photos here on my shop computer. But it is very straight forward. The nice thing about having one hooked up like this.......you know right away if you have a problem. Sticky valves.....blown out vacuum advance .....bad rings...etc.....none of it can hide from a vacuum gauge. Added a photo of my vacuum gauge.....

Jerry; I don't think so. I had the tank relined and have only put a good grade of gas in it. I have run a few tanks full through it the last month or so though? Not really sure. I didn't rebuild this engine. When I took the head off the bores were almost like new. I found a rebuild tag which jived with what was in it so I decided to run it as it was. As I began to run it I discovered some end play in the crank which is not uncommon for fluid drives so I fitted a new set of main bearings to address that. That was successful so I broke it in carefully. I guess it is finally coming into it's own now. It sure is peppier now than it was a month ago, I was concerned that it was going to be too under powered for my use. It is no hot rod but it sure doesn't feel wimpy any more either. Maybe the frequent oil changes I have been doing has finally flushed the last of the old varnish and crud out of the system? I do know it has been coming out cleaner after longer and longer intervals. Jeff

Finmad (Fisherman?) That vacuum gauge will tell more about the condition of your engine and state of tune than any other device you are likely to own. For me it is a must have. Jeff.

Paul practically every swap meet has a booth or two selling used but good quality tools like this for a fraction of the new cost..I have a mix of stuff I have bought this way over the years. There are lots of good deals to be had.......you just gotta keep your eyes open.....and stop blaming the cat.

Thanks Paul.... .....but can't you afford to replace the feeler gauges? There will come a day when the matchbook won't cut it anymore. Besides you have been warned to stay away from incendiary devices. Jeff

There should be a fitting right on top of the intake manifold. Might have a plug in it now. You can get a fitting at the hardware store. I have a vacuum gauge hooked up full time so I always know the status of things. Jeff

Really?.....Well I call my truck Beaudreaux and it has burgundy colored wheels. I like em with the cream paint job. If it ticks certain folks off........I have to consider that a plus.

Yes Fred it has cooled down a bit and the old carb might run a bit richer. Not sure why it didn't make an immeadiate difference though? I don't need to get on a freeway in my commute. It is stop and go stuff on surface streets. Mostly 40 to 50 mph with a lot of stops in the evening. I have not had it on the freeway yet. I am sure it will wind up to the speeds OK but I don't think my steering box is properly centered. Need to do a bit more testing though. There is a spot not too far away that should be a good speed test place early Saturday or Sunday morning. Just need to do it......and now that I know exactly how fast I am going this weekend makes sense. The freeways are nothing like they were back in '73. That was easy stuff for the most part back then. No cell phones.....and not all that many really fast cars. You had to fall asleep to have a bad accident. These days it can be a whole lot scarier and happen in the blink of an eye. Not too many drivers allow enough space for even the slightest hiccup. Jeff

It is interesting. The hesitation has all but gone away the last few of days of running the old carb. And by interesting I mean that it did not go away immeadiately.......but rather gradually. Not sure what that is all about? But it is running stronger. Not much problem keeping up with reasonable traffic now. Gotta like that. There for the first few weeks I was feeling very out of place in traffic. I imagine sort of like the old cowboy who rode into town after a long absence ...... only to find the streets full of new fangled automobiles. Jeff

If it is 5 x 5 x 9/16" it is for a 3/4 ton pilothouse

Well there you go. That sort of vacuum leak would cause it to run lean as well. I would suggest you get a vacuum gauge and become familiar with how to use it. IMO It is one of the most valuable tools you can own. Jeff

I have a full time vane type pump on this truck. It seemed to me that it would be a good idea to have a regulator. I had it set at 3.5# so as to not put too much pressure on the float needle valve. All that was working fine.........but then the regulator developed a leak. So it is off now and everything still works as it should. There have not been any fuel supply issues with this set up......and honestly I trust the electrical pump more than I would one of the old mechanical pumps. If it ever fails I have a spare and where the pump is located it is easier...... and cooler to get to than the mechanical pump. I am pretty certain that none of this has anything to do with the little hesitation thing I have been experiencing. So far I really like the little GPS heads up display speedometer. It's nice to know exactly how fast you are traveling. 50 mph is moving along in one of these old trucks. I have a bit of play in the steering box so that will need to be addressed before I really crank this thing up. I will say this. If I lived out in the country and did not have to deal with crazy traffic literally all the time this truck would be just fine as it is. It does all the things it was designed to do quite well. I have hauled a couple of 400# to 500# loads and quite frankly I forgot I had a load other than it rode a little better. It is fairly quiet and comfortable and it doesn't squeek much like a lot of old cars and trucks I see. But it is probably going to take a while to get it to the point that I am really comfortable with it in this local. One thing I don't care much for is the location and shape of the brake pedal. I may consider a redesign which addresses this and allows for a power brake booster. Jeff

You need to start by verifying that the timing is in the correct range. Until you know it is for sure you will just be chasing phantoms. Jeff

Several years ago I tried something very similar on an antique M/C........and got very similar results to yours. The problem is the extended duration of the spark generated by the box or module. These modules work fine on engines with modern combustion chambers......and not well at all with softly tuned lumps like ours. But hey you tried. Jeff

You know it is funny but this engine idles quite nicely. And it accelerates about as good as I have any right to expect. It is just the brief transition between idle and acceleration that makes it annoying. I have my old carb on right now with no pressure regulator and it seems a bit better than the "like new carb" I have been running up til now. Once it is good and warm the hesitation just about disapears. It also seems to have a bit more oomph off the line and midrange. I might just be imagining this..... but it does seem a little peppier. I think this engine is in pretty good order. It does not burn oil or smoke and last I checked compression was pretty even and the plugs stay clean. I will do another compression check soon to see how it is fairing as I use it daily. Overall though it seems pretty sound. I will begin road testing an interesting little gadget this week. It is a stand alone GPS speedometer with a heads up display. It is a compact little unit that plugs into my 12 volt lighter and displays in bright green on the inside surface of the windshield. The display is bright enough that it is clearly visible in daylight. We will see how accurate this little guy is but it got good reviews. Jeff

Timing may be off a bit.

You are probably right Merle about the valve adjustment thing. I think a lot of adjustments on older low compression engines don't want to be too fine. I have seen a few plugs damaged like that ....but they have come out of air cooled two strokes. Detonation at high temps can definitely cause this. This certainly isn't something you would expect to see in one of these old trucks. Jeff

No not really. I have tried the choke thing and maybe it makes it less likely to stall due to a richer mixture but this little hesitation is still present. I think it will be a pretty nice truck to drive once I get this taken care of. On a side note I did have something very disturbing happen on this truck last week. Pulled into the garage one evening last week and my wife said she could smell gas. After a bit of examination I discovered that the Holley fuel pressure regulator I had installed had started leaking at the adjuster mechanism. This is absurd. This is a part designed specifically to do what it was doing and it should not leak after such a short time in service. I removed it and will call the supplier this week. Absolutely ridiculous that this should leak. Jeff

Hank; I don't think that this has anything to do with the vacuum advance. This is very momentary. Once past it acceleration is strong. Tim; The linkage for the pump is in the center position. At one point I tried the summer position and it seemed to make it worse. I could try it again? Jeff

? Nothing could be further from the truth. Take them off , replace them with some dead ones and find out just how much work they do. It may be true that you don't have to spend a lot of money.......but believe me you need to spend some. Todays gas charged shocks and seal technology is just not all that expensive. Jeff Jeff

I have not been able to completely eliminate the hesitation of idle. It is not horrible.......but it is not right either. Also make the use of the fluid drive a very iffy proposition in traffic. Stalls pretty easy. Have been all over the carb....no joy there so I put my old one back on. It pretty much runs the same way. I also ditched the PCV system and went back to a road draft tube. That did not change the way it is running. Have tried several minor timing adjustments.....no joy there either. Vacuum at idle is a steady 20.5" I am running out of ideas. I know it has to be something simple that I have overlooked. Jeff

I am curious as to what would have caused a plug to lose an electrode? I don't think it is all that common to see something like this with what looks like no damage to the insulator. The only time I have ever seen anything like this was on an air cooled m/c that was running way too lean. And in that case the electrode melted out. Doesn't seem likely here. I doubt that these plugs had all that many miles on them so what would have caused this? Is it an isolated manufacturing flaw? Or was there an incident like severe detonation that contributed to this failure? Jeff

Did you pull the jets out and make sure the passages are all clean? Also did you get the check balls back into place and check their operation. If you have fuel in the float chamber you should be able to look down the carb while operating the throttle and see a stream of fuel. Hth; Jeff