What have you done to your square lately??

I think I fixed my thermostat housing leak. It's leaked slightly since I got "Ralph". I tore it apart a year or so ago, but it did not fix it. It was just enough to lose a quart or two every month. A few weeks ago, I noticed the rad was full!. And the cap "popped" when opened. Checked it before I drove into the Rockies today, and it was full. I've been driving it alot and well, its not loosing coolant any more. Huh. See, like I say below, my truck is getting better! This is an original motor, that has never been apart. 43 years old. Only maybe 95000 miles. I gave it the Vice Grip Garage (spray can) rebuild. Treat her right, and they'll respect you. Motor is now dry below the T/S housing.

Blue Ox said:

That wasn't under water, was it?

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I've pulled apart many that looked like that. Just humidity.

bucket said:

I've pulled apart many that looked like that. Just humidity.

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Well, it is the PNW. So, I'm sure it's somewhere in between. Fished the cruise wire out and thinking about how I'm going to fix this with what I have laying around.
This column has something beyond just the screws being loose under the tilt mechanism. The shaft flops around, not the housing. Not sure if I'm going to even bother any farther diagnosis, because this other column is so much cleaner.

Had those issues with stalling, so yesterday I reached out to Pat from Pro Systems and he told me to bring the carb in. Popped the carb off, drove it out to their shop (thankfully not a crazy drive) and their guy tore the whole carb down, completely rebuilt it, and put it on their test engine for me while I stood there. Absolutely amazing customer service.

Anyone looking for a carb should absolutely call these guys, the best customer service I've ever had. Was fun talking with the guys there too, good group.

Bent some steel tubing and replaced rubber hoses at new fuel pump with steel lines that run from pump to tank and engine lines. Turned out nice.

Radiohead said:

Well, it is the PNW. So, I'm sure it's somewhere in between. Fished the cruise wire out and thinking about how I'm going to fix this with what I have laying around.
This column has something beyond just the screws being loose under the tilt mechanism. The shaft flops around, not the housing. Not sure if I'm going to even bother any farther diagnosis, because this other column is so much cleaner.

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I found some 8 lead Telcom wire in the mess and I think it will work as well as fit into the provided cavity. I'll make it a little longer so i can have a little leeway in how it goes back together.




Lol, I said that this other column was cleaner. I mean clean as in all there and not all wobbly.

Still dealing with my stalling issue.

Last Saturday I took my wife to Metro Cruise in my truck, it ran great with zero issues. Metro Cruise is a big car show in Grand Rapids, and the issue is you basically idle down the road at in stop and go for over an hour (maybe pertinent info). The truck did great, never got hot and ran perfect the whole time. Drove it 80 mph home and parked it.

I didn't drive it Sunday or Monday, but the following Tuesday I started it in the morning to head to work. This time it quit after a couple minutes of running, quit like you just shut the key off, but it fired right back up and ran great. I drove it to work and every once in a while, when I came to a stop it would stall. But by the end of the day, on my way home it seemed fine.

Assuming it was probably the carb, I took the carb to Pro Systems and they rebuilt it. Last night I put the carb on... Same stalling issue.

This morning I put a new (mechanical) fuel pump on it to eliminate that variable. Still stalling. It is getting worse, now it'll only run for about 20 seconds and die, like you shut the key off. I had my wife start it, and when it started to quit I sprayed gas in the carb and it made no difference.

I've never had a distributor or coil give an intermittent problem like this, but I've also never had an ignition do this either. Kinda scratching my head on this. FWIW, it's an Accel distributor and an Accel coil. Anyone have any suggestions?

Edit: just wanted to reiterate that when I initially start it, it runs excellent. Great throttle response and not missing. Runs for roughly 20 seconds, then it dies.

I've had this problem with a bad iac on an 87tpi

squaredeal91 said:

I've had this problem with a bad iac on an 87tpi

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That's what it feels like, but I'm 99% sure this isn't fuel related. I watched the fuel pressure when my wife started it, it held 6 psi the whole time. I can look in the float bowls on the carb and they're both right where they should be. Plus I tried squirting gas into the carb when it started to quit and it didn't make a difference. Whenever it decides to quit, nothing I do will keep it running. Once it stalls, if I hit the ignition it'll fire right back up, run for another 20 seconds and quit again.

When this originally started, if I gave it gas I could keep it running by kicking the RPMs up. Now that doesn't work, it'll die no matter what I do with the gas pedal.

Edit: I also watched the test engine idle with this carb on it for like 5 minutes with zero issues.

@mattsk8 I has this same problem with my 57 with 383 and Mallory distributor. As you described it would cut off instantly, as if the key was turned off but would fire back up again, sometimes taking a few minutes to do so. Tried several different things as you have. In the end it was the distributor module. Replaced that and it never did it again.

WFarm said:

@mattsk8 I has this same problem with my 57 with 383 and Mallory distributor. As you described it would cut off instantly, as if the key was turned off but would fire back up again, sometimes taking a few minutes to do so. Tried several different things as you have. In the end it was the distributor module. Replaced that and it never did it again.

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Thank you. The distributor is where I was heading next but figured I'd ask you guys. I've had a Ford ignition module do this to me before, where it was intermittent, but never a distributor. Your post helps, I think I'll be replacing the distributor next (fingers crossed)...

mattsk8 said:

Thank you. The distributor is where I was heading next but figured I'd ask you guys. I've had a Ford ignition module do this to me before, where it was intermittent, but never a distributor. Your post helps, I think I'll be replacing the distributor next (fingers crossed)...

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Back in the day... for about a decade when points were being replaced with ignition modules... the vehicles would cut out and die suddenly for no apparent reason. A very common problem. Sometimes they would start right up and run fine for hours, sometimes not start for hours, and sometimes start right up and die in minutes... and do it several times.
We had a couple of boom trucks with baskets on a job site, controls in the baskets, and we'd get thirty feet in the air and the truck would die. Sometimes guys trapped in the basket for hours and sometimes the truck would restart and we'd keep working.

I had idle problems and threw new spark plugs in. It worked. But it sounds like the total power kill could be fuel pump maybe?

Can you guys hear that?...
...
...
...
...
That's the sound of my truck running
It was the stupid ignition module.

Gotta say I've never heard of a IM acting flaky. Either they worked or, they didn't.