Stranded

[Merle Coggins]

Well, the Ol' Dodge finally let me down. I'm driving it up to Appleton this evening and it started loosing power and running rough again. The temp was pretty high too. Pretty much the same thing that happened earlier this year, but this time it's didn't go back to normal when I backed off and it cooled down. There was a noticeable misfire and sever lack of power. I limped it off the highway and I'm now waiting on a tow truck to take me the rest of the way. AAA to the rescue. After talking with the AAA agent I tried to start it and the whole electrical system went dead. It was showing good charge he whole time, but maybe my voltage was dropping due to a bad battery. It's several years old and I've had to recharge it a couple time after extended non-use. I've never needed to do that before. I guess nothing lasts forever. Not even Farm & Fleet batteries.

More later when I get a chance to dig in to it. Probably won't be any time soon.

[John Rogers]

I sure hope it isn't anything serious. We have AAA too, it has saved our bacon more than once.

                         John

Edited October 6, 2015 by John Rogers

[Todd B]

Now that your close to me, feel free to call me for help next time.   

[Mark Haymond]

I hope you just need a new battery. Batteries are fickle.

Last week I started my Plymouth in the garage. Baam it fired up strong as usual. I drove to the store and bought a load of groceries and put them in the trunk. Baam it started right up.

I stopped again at the ATM at the bank. Baam it started right up. I drove around to the other side of the bank and got ready to pull into traffic. Sensing there was a small line of cars behind me, the engine died. (lack of ignition power) The starter relay just clicked feebly, the horn was feeble, headlights were dim, you know the story. I called my wife to come and save the groceries because it was a warm day.

For the first time in ten years I used my AAA card. The driver did a quick charge on the battery and followed me home a mile and a half away to make sure I made it. Back at the house my three year old battery only had 10.7 volts so I guess a cell shorted or failed.

With your automotive experience I am confident you will get to the bottom of the problem quickly without our help, so I am just sharing my story for fun and grins.

[Ralph Pearce]

Sorry to hear. Looking forward to hearing back once you've got her figured out.  Not that I know that much, but when I hear overheating, misfire and lack of power I immediately think of the distributor. 

Edited October 7, 2015 by Ralph Pearce

[Jeff Balazs]

Merle;

Bummer. Let us know what it turns out to be.

As a side note I had a Napa industrial battery as a spare that went bad just sitting on the shelf. I had been putting a charge on it about once a month and it just quit. Hardly any use on it since new.......only 3 years old. I don't think this type of battery does well sitting. I have an Optima 6 volt in the truck which I like.

 

Jeff

[Don Coatney]

A few years back on a very hot day I attended a car show about 50 miles from home. I observed that my amp gauge was reading a couple clicks higher than normal on the drive home. Arrived home and parked in the driveway. An hour or so later I went out to pull the car into the garage and the battery was completely flat. Replaced the battery and all was well. Heat kills. There are more battery failures in hot weather than in cold weather.

[ggdad1951]

hope things worked out bud!

[HanksB3B]

The good news is that our trucks are simple and I've found that usually warrants a simple fix. My last few minor breakdowns got me scarred and made me think there was something seriously wrong like blown rings or a burnt or stuck valve and like my truck. I hope your trucks problem, turns out to be an easy fix. I'll describe my three situations. You might remember the first one (I think you even may have helped me)

 

1. I was riding with two big girls and lost power. It felt as if my truck was getting no compression. I envisioned doing a compression check and imagined major engine work would be required. It turns out that I had routed the wires within the distributor incorrectly and the rotor had rubbed then bare causing a short that kept me running on all fours not on all six cylinders. Fixed!

 

2. The next one convinced me I needed a new battery. I'd try to start the truck and it would turn over but not catch the first time which can be normal, but the next foot stomp on the starter pedal would leave me blank no power no cranking over, dead. It took a while to figure out that the green plastic buttoned quick disconnect was the problem. I guess spark within the mechanism caused oxidation and virtually eliminated contact. When I installed two new straighforward $5 solid brass battery terminals it was as though my 5 year old Optima (higest cranking power of any 6V battery I could find) became a brand new battery. I think even while running, my battery was getting an intermittent charge. 

 

3. The most recent situation was loss of power and the inability to get the truck to drive within it's power band. I had to baby my gas pedal and drive the truck very tender footed when accelerating from idle or the truck would take a dive in power causing me to hav to shift at just the right moment to try and smooth out the lack of acceleration power and get it up to speed. Again I'm thinking major problems. I've had my truck for a while now actually 34 years of it's 64 years and even though I think I have gotten pretty good at guessing, find I can be completely wrong. I first wanted to blame the carburetor and had a discussion with Tim  where he explained the circuits within the carburetor.

 

My next door neighbor Kent came over and the first thing he said was "how old are those wires" I had also suspected that those 5 year old  "original" cloth covered wires did look a bit shabby and pulled out a brand new set of wires connected to a new distributor cap with masking taped numbers at each of the wires (makes it a simple job to route the wires to the plugs) Kent was impressed. Next you can't really overlook that you have to check the point gap, the spark plugs and timing and you do at some point realize it's a whole lot easier to pull the distributor and make sure the gap is correct and the wires are nice and tight. I suspected the VACUUME advance and sure enough you could blow right through it which means the diaphram is shot. Luckily I had one from an ebay carburetor purchase that looked brand new and was good. Really this was it. Replacing the vacuume advance, setting the points, replacing the fouled very rich blackened spark plugs made all the difference, the idle jet was set at 1-1/4 turns out, but by the time Kent was done tuning he said he got it running much leaner and as the idle speed increased at each slow turn in, sort of boasted the idle jet is only about 1/16 of a turn out.

 

My truck is running better and stronger than I ever remember...my cost a few spare parts a new set of plugs and a BBQ steak, potato and corn dinner for Kent.

 

I guess there is no other choice than to start at the beginning the simple things,

 

Best of luck with yours Merle, Here's to a simple fix,

 

Hank 

 

 .  

Edited October 7, 2015 by HanksB3B

[finmad]

Merel, I just experienced the same exact thing on the highway. This was the first time I took it on the highway and only for a couple miles in between exits with no back route. I had it at about 60mph, when I started to lose power kind of slowly, then a bunch of back fires and I think some through the carb, The temp gauge was way up (not at all normal for this truck, it runs at 190 and never more). I babied it off the exit and once I got it back down to around 45-50, the temp gauge came down and all was well. ???? It has run fine since, I might be too aware now, but it does seem to idle a little rougher and surge a little bit when just rolling along at low speeds like in a parking lot. At first I thought my thermostat failed closed, but then the temp came back to normal and it has been working fine since. Now I am kind of thinking it is the vacuum advance. I cant really think of any other reason for all the breaking up and back fires at high rpm. But if it is the vacuum why would the temp skyrocket??? Does anyone have some ideas?

[finmad]

Just had another thought, maybe vapor lock in the carb or fuel line? If I am running really hot can I boil the gas in the lines going to the carb or in the bowls? Is that common on these motors? I remember seeing a guy who used a block of wood between the carb and intake because of the heat (probably not wise I bet)

[HanksB3B]

Merel, I just experienced the same exact thing on the highway. This was the first time I took it on the highway and only for a couple miles in between exits with no back route. I had it at about 60mph, when I started to lose power kind of slowly, then a bunch of back fires and I think some through the carb, The temp gauge was way up (not at all normal for this truck, it runs at 190 and never more). I babied it off the exit and once I got it back down to around 45-50, the temp gauge came down and all was well. ???? It has run fine since, I might be too aware now, but it does seem to idle a little rougher and surge a little bit when just rolling along at low speeds like in a parking lot. At first I thought my thermostat failed closed, but then the temp came back to normal and it has been working fine since. Now I am kind of thinking it is the vacuum advance. I cant really think of any other reason for all the breaking up and back fires at high rpm. But if it is the vacuum why would the temp skyrocket??? Does anyone have some ideas?

 

It is also possible to boil gasoline into carburetor which can put more gas into the engine while it's running. It's sort of like flooding your truck while driving.  Too much gas for the piston to fire wetting the spark plug and when it does fire there is more gas in the cylinder that it likes and then it'll backfire. If you can see gas seeping out of the sides of the carburator below the 5 screw top check the float level and set it down maybe 1/16" lower than spec. 

 

Hank 

Edited October 9, 2015 by HanksB3B

[finmad]

Hank you nailed it... I checked the carb and sure enough it is seeping right above the bowl. I will tear it down lower the float and put new gaskets in this weekend. I also had number 6 plug only finger tight so there was some blow by. All new plugs and it is running much better.

[HanksB3B]

Hank you nailed it... I checked the carb and sure enough it is seeping right above the bowl. I will tear it down lower the float and put new gaskets in this weekend. I also had number 6 plug only finger tight so there was some blow by. All new plugs and it is running much better.

 

Great ! It's not the gas pouring out of the carb that's the problem. Unless Paul's Fire Starter Cat happens to be riding under your hood he could light up your engine compartment and that's why we MUST carry a firte extinguisher, but it's the gas pouring from the carburetor into the engine that causes the flooding and heat soak problem. If this ever happens to someone else: Your truck won't start in this condition and rather than wear out your battery it's better to remove the oil bath air filter and let the whole mess cool down before attempting to start. Not fond of using starter fluid or WD-40 although they can help, I'm always nervous of detonation and usually choose (if I'm not in a desperate situation) to just wait for the engine to get down to 100 degrees.

 

Glad to have been of help,

 

Hank 

 

.

Edited October 9, 2015 by HanksB3B

[finmad]

Happened again today. cruising at higher RPM for a few miles when all of a sudden the truck just lost all acceleration and power, it slowed till it stopped then cut out. I waited about 5 minutes and hit the starter plunger and it started right up. I will pull the carb and lower the float. Is this fairly common on these engines? It seems like a bad design to have the intake as part of the exhaust manifolds.

[HanksB3B]

finmad,

 

Happened again today. cruising at higher RPM for a few miles when all of a sudden the truck just lost all acceleration and power, it slowed till it stopped then cut out. I waited about 5 minutes and hit the starter plunger and it started right up. I will pull the carb and lower the float. Is this fairly common on these engines? It seems like a bad design to have the intake as part of the exhaust manifolds.

 

 

Not according to Paul's cat, but on another note:

 

Your distributor doesn't look like this does it ? 

 

 

I also posted in post #66 of

 

http://p15-d24.com/topic/39700-daily-driverfirst-impressions/page-7#entry420149

 

Your problem could also be the intermittent short that can occur at the coil wire insullator going into the distributor. It's something you may  want to replace. 

 

Hank 

Edited October 9, 2015 by HanksB3B

[Young Ed]

Happened again today. cruising at higher RPM for a few miles when all of a sudden the truck just lost all acceleration and power, it slowed till it stopped then cut out. I waited about 5 minutes and hit the starter plunger and it started right up. I will pull the carb and lower the float. Is this fairly common on these engines? It seems like a bad design to have the intake as part of the exhaust manifolds.

You can actually just pull the air cleaner and then the top of the carb right on the engine. Works slick. 

[HanksB3B]

You can actually just pull the air cleaner and then the top of the carb right on the engine. Works slick. 

 

+1 on that 

 

Hank 

[Jeff Balazs]

+1 on that 

 

Hank 

I disagree. I believe you need to have the carb inverted to properly set the float level. No way to do that with it in place. You might get close using this other method.......but I am pretty certain it is not the best way.

 

Jeff

[Fernando Mendes]

...................

"b.CONTACT POINT OPENING-Contact point opening must be set to proper limits.Points set too closely may tend to BURN or PIT rapidly.Points WITH EXCESSIVE SEPARATION tend to cause a WEAK SPARK AT HIGH SPEED."(WWII GMC Maintenance Manual)

[finmad]

finmad,

 

 

 

Not according to Paul's cat, but on another note:

 

Your distributor doesn't look like this does it ? 

 

 

I also posted in post #66 of

 

http://p15-d24.com/topic/39700-daily-driverfirst-impressions/page-7#entry420149

 

Your problem could also be the intermittent short that can occur at the coil wire insullator going into the distributor. It's something you may  want to replace. 

 

Hank 

 

Hank you are two for two. I have that distributor and had that exact problem when I first got the truck. I pulled the distributor to rebuild it and did not notice the isolator had perished. The bolt passing though was grounding out. It took me about two weeks to figure it out. I stuffed it with about a dozen new O-rings that were the right size. Do you know if they sell an isolator replacement part?

Edited October 11, 2015 by finmad

[HanksB3B]

It is called a "shoulder washer" it's made of Nylon and can be found at Ace Hardware or I'd imagine any other good local hardware store that has those slide out flip top boxes. O'rings sound like they may do the trick, but a harder shoulder washer is the "perfect" fix. 

 

Hank 

 

finmad, If you can't find it, slip me a PM with your mailing address and I'll send you one.

Edited October 12, 2015 by HanksB3B

[Fernando Mendes]

finmad,

 

 

 

Not according to Paul's cat, but on another note:

 

Your distributor doesn't look like this does it ? 

 

 

I also posted in post #66 of

 

http://p15-d24.com/topic/39700-daily-driverfirst-impressions/page-7#entry420149

 

Your problem could also be the intermittent short that can occur at the coil wire insullator going into the distributor. It's something you may  want to replace. 

 

Hank 

I always put my condenser out of the distributor.

[HanksB3B]

Hi Fernando,

 

Take a picture,

 

Hank 

[Don Coatney]

My condenser is out.