My 1980 K20 with a Quadrajet left me stranded...help

[roguewave]

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Did one of my fly,buy and drive hairbrain things, it’s very nice original truck with no rust.

I think it sat for a bit but ran fair when I left the sellers house to drive 1400 miles home. Got stuck in traffic right away on the 210 freeway in San Bernardino, Calif. After about 20 miles it started to not idle while in traffic, I did the neutral to drive thing to keep it going. After traffic let up I thought I’d be OK, got it running along at 60 mph and it started to bog down, felt like a fuel issue. I limped off the freeway to a gas station parking lot and tried to find the answer. Carb # is 17057204, I didn’t bring tools along this time except for a 4 in one screwdriver and a mini crescent wrench.

my question is...can I partially rebuild/clean it in the parking lot? Have not really rebuilt one before but willing to give it a shot. I’ll walk to Oreillys this morning first thing and try and get a kit for it and some tools. I did undo the fuel line and stuck it in a bottle and cranked it over, it seems to be pumping fine. Took off the inline fuel filter and tapped it on the ground but saw no trash in it.

thoughts ?


Full of high hopes before leaving LOL

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[Shorty81]

Wow....that's a great lookin' truck!!

 

[AKguy]

I would install a rebuilt carb and drive it home.

 

[roguewave]

Just discovered the charcoal canister sent crap into the carb. Saw all these, what I thought were mouse turds, turned out to be charcoal hah! Hopefully on the road soon, we’ll see...

Thanks for the suggestions

 

[Blue Ox]

I was just going to suggest inlet filter. But I guess it is either did it's job or didn't.

Good luck with the repair.

 

[Grit dog]

Leave it there, I’ll be down with a trailer by tomorrow morning. Leave title in glovebox please! you shouldn’t have to endure that clunker!

seriously, awesome looking truck.
Did you get the carb cleaned out?

 

[Snoots]

Hope you got it fixed and made it home ok.

Does it have a catalytic converter?

 

[roguewave]

Back on the road, made it to Blythe. I found a real cool guy within walking distance of the truck, go figure, he took carb off and rebuilt it this morning. It had all kinds of charcoal inside. Runs like a top now....so far. Slept ( not much) in the cold cab last night, I’m bailing early today. Zzzzzz

 

[Matt69olds]

I have seen the charcoal canister clog up the float bowl before. It does occasionally happen, not sure how or why it happens. That vacuum line is designed to collect fuel vapors snd store them in the canister, so how does the charcoal chunks get sucked up into the carb? The float bowl isn’t under vacuum.

 

[Ricko1966]

I have seen the charcoal canister clog up the float bowl before. It does occasionally happen, not sure how or why it happens. That vacuum line is designed to collect fuel vapors snd store them in the canister, so how does the charcoal chunks get sucked up into the carb? The float bowl isn’t under vacuum.

My thought would be the canister isn't being purged, due to a pinched vacuum line etc. So as tank pressure builds the charcoal is pushed under pressure not brought up by vacuum through the bowl vent.

 

[Matt69olds]

That makes sense. I suppose it wouldn’t take much pressure to move those tiny chunks.

 

[78C10BigTen]

Damn nice truck!!!

 

[Powerhouse Ranch]

very nice truck! love the fly, buy and drive method, would love to do that one of these days

 

[Salty Crusty]

Good on you, great looking truck.

Nothing in the world wrong with a quadrajet and rebuilt correctly, it'll give you great fuel economy (for a carb in a truck with the aerodynamics of a wall) and last forever.

I flew from Lubbock TX to KC and drove an '85 Mercedes convertible home once in freezing weather after a blizzard. It was either that or miss the car and that wasn't going to happen. When you find the right one, you'll do whatever it takes to get it home including having the carb rebuilt

 

[78C10BigTen]

Good on you, great looking truck.

Nothing in the world wrong with a quadrajet and rebuilt correctly, it'll give you great fuel economy (for a carb in a truck with the aerodynamics of a wall) and last forever.

I flew from Lubbock TX to KC and drove an '85 Mercedes convertible home once in freezing weather after a blizzard. It was either that or miss the car and that wasn't going to happen. When you find the right one, you'll do whatever it takes to get it home including having the carb rebuilt

Thats some roadkill stuff there