What have you done to your square lately??

JamesSam said:

It charged during my ride enough to crank up again right after shutting off the engine to wait on my son. I got it home and now I need to go get my CRV.

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DoubleDingo said:

Are you going to slow charge it overnight?

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JamesSam said:

How do you slow charge? Please forgive my ignorance.

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DoubleDingo said:

If you have a battery charger, use the low amp setting and it'll trickle charge.

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HotWheelsBurban said:

I think the battery might have a dead or dying cell. We went through something similar with my crew cab on Saturday. Got up early, breakfast at Whataburger (SOP for early gigs) and then heading across Houston to a toy show. Running the lights, stereo and heater all the way over there (cool front came in so it wasn't beastly hot for once!). No issues, gauge on 13-14V. Went to get the truck a few hours later to go load out, nothing but clicking. Got a jump and headed to the nearest location of the parts chain the battery came from last year. They checked it, sure enough, dead cell. Truck starts quicker than it has been, too.....
Earlier last week, we were setting and breaking high temperature records, then midweek a cold front came in and we went from 80s at night to low 50s. And old batteries don't do well with wide temperature swings....
We used to notice at the parts store, that it was quite rare to get more than 3 years out of a battery. We only handled good brands and charged every unit before it left the store. We always ran the highest CCA battery that would fit in the tray, checked the water level, and kept the terminals clean. This is in Houston, Texas where it's always hot and humid in the spring, summer and autumn, and can get fairly cold in the winter.

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BRetty said:

So that huge pile of carbs....

My truck ('73 C10, 350, quadrajet M4V) has been refusing to start cold, requiring a splash of gas in the top of the carb to fire up. I finally decided to address it the morning I had left my gas can at work and had to siphon some gas from my tank into a plastic cup.

Better starting technique (two long pimps, then crank and crank and ... ahhh), connecting an errant choke unloader linkage, and replacing a couple old vacuum caps took care of most of it. In fact, I put the vac gauge on it and it read dead-on, ~19", rock steady. Suspicious.

Well, as part of this I replaced the fuel filter that lives in the QJet inlet fitting. Was careful not to lose the spring, but the old nylon gasket got loose and when I tightened the fitting it got munged.

As a few threads here have noted, parts stores sell the filters but do not carry the gasket, never heard of any gasket. I knew I could order one, but shipping times felt unknown and I was leaking fuel. Could I find one locally?

I was worried about the leak so slept in my truck that night. Since I was bu work, I had extra time in the AM for breakfast. Went to the family Mexican place, and this truck, that I had noticed a month ago, was parked in front

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His lights were on, so I went inside, saw a table with three distinguished gentlemen whom I had seen there a few times talking clasic car talk. Let the owner know his lights were on....

To be continued.... (pulling up to job site will ETA this later....)

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brooksman9 said:

I love the smell of body filler in the morning.

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BRetty said:

... so I left with my "Irish Burrito" - with potatoes, no eggs, triple ham - and got to my truck when I realized that if there was a very local place to get this quadrajet gasket, these guys would know!

I was partially right. They sent me to Superior Auto Parts in Sylmar. Great place, no gasket. But Superior said Valley Carburetor in Pacoima was the place. Alas, they do not sell parts. BUT. "Call this number..."

I called the guy and kept trying to explain whay I needed, and finally I realized he was not saying "What?", he kept saying "I jave it."

So I tried to jet out of work on Friday and it was 4:50 and I was driving around in a dead end at railroad tracks ... had to extract, go around to an overpass, then ended up in a maze of tiny shop spaces, looking for #4. Where is this guy?!??

Oh, probably the garage with the giant pile of carbs! Oh and "Amarillo by Morning" was playing.

So I gave the last carb guy in LA $5 for a $0.59 part and got a biz card. No more fuel leaks!

Now a terrifying chatter and rumble at highway speed on the throttle. That's the next problem.

Pic of mangled old gasket:

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Will add carb man business card when I find it.... Thanks for all the Qjet wisdom I soaked up here.

BRetty

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