So this truck has been sitting for 13 years and we got the engine running with little trouble and it ran GREAT, until it didn't. Yesterday we had the transmission rebuilt and on the way home, the truck died on us. Now this is the first time the truck has driven and been under load in 13 years. It is a 73' with 73k miles on it. So on the way home it ran like a dream until we reached an uphill intersection. After starting uphill the truck began violently spitting and sputtering, it felt like it was running out of gas, but it still had a 1/4 tank. It stalled a few seconds later and has not ran correct since. Now after we got it towed we went to work trying to find what was wrong, but to no avail. These are the things we have tried/changed: New ignition system entirely, set timing to 8 degrees btdc and dwell to 28 degrees, rebuilt carb, and made sure fuel pump was working. Now at this point ti runs but so poorly that it shakes the entire truck and sounds horrible. One interesting thing was while we were setting the timing, it was bouncing all over the place, even though the distributor was stationary and the vacuum advance was disconnected. I am at a loss and I have no clue what has happened to it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Check to make sure the timing chain is still like it should be.

 

If it has the factory timing chain and gears, it may be that the nylon teeth on the crank gear have fallen off. Rock the crank back and forth while watching the rotor. There shouldn’t be much slop in the action. I blew the teeth off on my 390 and had 15+ degrees of slop.

Michael

 

I like this guy's way of checking the timing chain slack

 

Also, if your gas is 13 years old, you might want to drain it and start fresh