So after getting the truck home and cleaned out and scrubbed down, these are the items that I will be addressing to get it back on the road.
- There was about half a tank of gas that was probably in there over 10 years. Looked dark orange to almost brown in color and did not smell so good.
- The motor will need to be addressed to see what it will take to get it running.
- Check on the brakes and any other mechanical.
- Reinstall the seat that was in the bed when I bought it.
- Both windows will not roll down, so will need to pop off door panels and get that working again.
- Probably will need new tires or some take offs
So last weekend I removed the gas tank and started the cleaning process. Removed the fuel sending unit which I cleaned with lacquer thinner. Blew out and ran a few small bottle brush type cleaners through the tubes. Removed the metal mesh sock that was toast. Will install a Wix filter under the truck and one at the carb until I know all is good. The gas tank is being soaked with about a gallon of Acetone and a chain. Been working it back and forth everyday after work and it is doing a good job of getting the black look tar out of the bottom and sides.
I moved onto the motor later in the day on Saturday by checking fluids, removing spark plugs and squirting a little marvel Mystery oil into the pistons. Install new battery cables and new battery, disconnected the fuel line to the carburetor and inserted into a large water bottle to catch any bad gas that the fuel pump might pushout. Put a little gas down the carburetor and try to fire it over. I tried a few times to start it but no luck.
Sunday I decided I would do a tune up and see if I could get this thing to fire up. Here are the items that I replaced:
- replaced the AC delco R44 plugs with AC Delco R45 plugs
- New Plug wires, old ones were very brittle and crusty
- Distributor cap and rotor
- Added a brand new Pertronics Ignitor II and Flamethrower Coil
After doing all of the above I tried to fire it up again and had no luck again. I did pull a plug and hold to ground to make sure I was getting fire down to the plugs and it had a nice white spark when turned over. Probably have the distributor off a tooth or two so will be working on that by pulling plug and find TDC. I needed to recharge the battery after cranking for a bit on the motor.
So I decided to pull the carburetor off since it would need to be rebuilt or replaced. When I went to pull the carburetor off which is a 2 barrel Rochester 2 Jet with an oil bath air cleaner, the front two mounting studs broke of with hardly any pressure. So I have worked on getting those out the last two days after work and finally succeded. After that I chased all the mounting threads on intake with a 5/16 18NC tap to make sure the threads were good. Ordered a new rebuilt 2 barrel carburetor from Amazon to get it going.
This afternoon I will remount the intake with new Fel-Pro gaskets and let the RTV cure over night. Friday I will put the distributor back in after finding TDC, check that all wires are going to the right plugs. Mount the new carburetor and hookup a tempory tank and see if I can get it to fire up.
Sometimes when you are trying to rescue these trucks they seem to kick and fight all the way.