Oh I have no doubt I'm inheriting a tire fire, some of it is half assed effort by my friend to get the engine to fire which will be corrected. I just don't have the energy to argue.

I don't see anything electric with the choke, but based on my knowledge of thermostats it's using a bimetal coil to open and close it.

The line from the pump to the carb was metal when I got the truck, then we twisted it trying to get the fuel filter off so we cut it and put a piece of rubber in between as a stopgap while we tinker. (I intend to replace the entire fuel line)

I can't swear to the year vs carb model but it's a 7051SA stamp on the carb, which if it's wrong straight up will not shock me. It appears to be a Carter YSA 1bbl carb and going through multiple docs and videos "looks" correct.

This truck "allegedly" ran 3 years ago when the guy I bought it off drove it a couple hundred KM from Red Deer to Calgary and he was an old boy who didn't seem inclined to lie. He knocked $500 off the price of the thing while we discussed it.

I'm taking the carb back over tomorrow around noon to work some more on it, hope to do some timing works and I'll check for any more stickers about the place.

I wish it was warmer but it's roughly around freezing so I can't complain right now, the alternative is -30.

 

This is the best picture I have of the carb at the moment.

 

Ok so it turns out that whoever did the previous distributor work had the timing almost exactly 180 degrees wrong. Like I could not have made it more wrong. That was annoying and educational to climb under the vehicle. 10*BTDC was about where we ended up getting it running at.

So we have it running and idling now, but when I put it in gear it stalls and I can't keep it running. So we're close but not there yet.

If I'm reading this right the yellow hose we broke is the only vacuum hose I actually care about, as I don't have A/C unless that red hose is something else.

 

The yellow hose is your vacuum advance to the distributor. As long as this port is plugged so it doesnt leak, the engine will run fine without it. Its for fuel mileage.

A/CL is not airconditioning its a abbreviation for aircleaner. The red line is for the flapper valve in the original aircleaner to draw warm air up from the exhaust manifold. This makes the engine run better when it's cold out. Besides being a little cold natured when its cold outside, this should not keep it from running either.

 

WOW a total of 4 vacuum lines cant get any easier than that!
It looks like a north of the border truck and why it may not have the carb bowl vent and not seeing it on the sticker.
WOW a total of 4 vacuum lines!

Dave is right.
I would trash that plastic line and just run it in rubber.
You can run the timing up more than 10* BTDC as long as it starts with out kicking back and you dont get pinging.
Mine is at 14* BTDC right now but has been at 16* BTDC and started just fine.

My spec (USA truck) calls for 8* BTDC and took longer to fire off than the 16*.
I am working on the timing curve as I was getting pinging really bad but this happens when you remove smog items that were long gone before I get the truck.
For this recurve I started at 14* BTDC as it started pretty good there but may bump it up to 16* BTDC if I dont get pinging.

As for your truck dying when put into gear get it up to temp, bump the timing up 2*or 4*, reset the idle speed and then adjust the idle mix for a smooth idle.
You may need to jump back & forth between idle speed and mix to get it dialed in.

How old is the gas you are using?
Old gas can cause all kinds of run issues.
Once running good we can work on that choke as it dose not looked to be working as it should.
Dave ----

 

It is a Canadian truck. The gas is a week old, luckily the tank was empty. We put about 7 gallons of fresh gas in.

We ran out of time on it Friday so hopefully either today or tomorrow I can get back at it. It's promising and it runs really well when out of gear.

Air Cleaner makes a lot more sense, and the simplicity of it is fantastic.

 

Argh, we did something stupid and made it worse, I don't know what we did though. So that's super annoying, then the sun went down and we had to stop. And it's -18 and blowing snow today so not gonna work on it now.

 

What did you do just before it got worse?
Did you do a few things and if so what were they?
What is it doing that it's worse?
With that temperature out I would not even think about doing anything to it.
Dave ----

 

We had it running and idling pretty well, it was stalling when we would put it into gear. One of my buddies neighbours wandered by to "help" and they started fiddling while I was in the cab. It got dark shortly after and I didn't get a chance to see what they were doing, then when we went to work on it again on Friday it wouldn't fire at all. When we ran out of light again it still wasn't firing so when it warms up I think we need to start at square one. Need to pick up a Haynes manual too.

I did pull the plugs and they all look ok, I was not aware that you could have the TDC mark there on the downstroke so that was probably part of the problem.

 

Just to clear it up, TDC on 1 one cylinder is always TDC or top dead center. The problem is this is a 4 cycle engine. So during these 4 cycles TDC comes up twice. One of the TDC cycles is the exhaust stroke, the one you do not want. The other TDC event is the firing stroke, the one you want. There is no difference as far as the marks and the piston are concerned, both are the same. But it's where the camshaft is and the valves that determine which TDC you need to pick to set the timing. So you hold your thumb over the sparkplug hole and turn the engine, when air tries to blow your thumb off you know the piston is coming up to TDC and both valves are shut. That's the firing TDC you want.

 

Yeah I honestly completely forgot that it does 2 rotations until it was mentioned to me.

 

When you say "stallling when put in gear", what do you mean? The idle dropped and it quit? If you had it running good at idle, was the idle high enough to support dropping it into gear? I'm wondering if the "helper" messed with idle screws or the choke mechanism, causiing it to flood or starve for fuel? When you say not fire, that is a bit ambiguous - it won't start, but does it still have spark? Just thinkijng through the possibilities. Got to have fuel, air, and spark. You had spark when it shut down, so the helper probably didn't mess with that. But always worth checking again.

If you have a helper, take a plug out, put it back in the wire and lay it on some grounded metal on the engine. Crank engine and look for spark. Pardon me if I'm explaining things too simply. Just trying to figure it out. IF you have spark, I would look at fueling issues - you do have gas in the tank, right? Try some starting fluid or a small amount of gas down the carb throat, see if it fires or tries to start at all.

Good luck. I think it's cold here at 32*. I can't imagine your kind of cold.

The Haynes manual I have is way less helpful than the folks here and at Gary's site. Just takes a minute or 68 to get a reply.

 

The idle dropped and it quit? - This is exactly what it was doing. It was idling fairly high which was something we were working on, if it put it in gear with the brake on and feathered the gas I could keep it from stalling out for 10 seconds or so but it would never stabilize.

It has good spark and fuel so I don't think those are an issue. We tested for spark the other day, it's finally warmed up above freezing again here so I'm hoping to work on it today or tomorrow.

Don't worry about dumbing it down, it's been a long time since I worked on anything but a motorbike.

Fuel - fresh and half a tank
Spark - new plugs, distributor cap and rotor, wires. Spark looked good.
Air - Carb works well and if we feed it gas it will fire briefly. I think it was wrong initially but rebuilt it and it works well.

Part of the problem is my buddy whose place it's parked at has a very scattershot method of troubleshooting, I need to start taking active notes on what specifically we do each time cause he doesn't commit any of it to memory.

I picked up the manual yesterday from Canadian Tire and I have to admit I am underwhelmed by it. I hope it serves at least some use but you are right about the information being better here.

 

Well, I'm stumped. I'm not sure what all happens when you put an auto in gear other than the strain of the trans wanting to pull, puts the motor under load. Maybe one of the fine folks here will jump in. That would lower idle but not sure why it wouldn't stay running.

But thinking on the carb. That does seem to be the issue. And it has a sketchy history. Have you considered one of the cheap chinese carbs? Less than $100 and could at least point you towards a solution. IF you do decide to try that - CHECK every screw on that carb for tightness. I had a 2 bbl and it dropped a throttle plate screw down the throat - it's a sickening sound to hear the engine eating a screw. But apparently the screw went on through or is embedded - it's all quiet after a few minutes of pinging.

Good idea on making notes. And motorbikes are a lot the same - same principles apply. I learned how carbs work on motorcycles. I worked for a state trainging program and was responsible for the fleet and repairing the ones that had been left unrunning. Nothing like a 600 mile mototrcycle that has sat for years and just needs a carb cleaning.

What circuit is it running on when it is running? Choke or hot idle? THat determines which screws you turn to adjust the idle speed. And it does respond to the throttle when you give it gas, right? Have you capped all visible vacuum leaks? The hot air tube coming off carb probably needs to be capped if it isn't attached to close the air leak. It's pretty small though. The sticker you showed with the vac lines usually has the idle speeds on it as well.

Do you have a vacuum gauge? They are like $14USD so really a cheap good tool to use to help figure some things out. Does it run smoothly when idling? Does truck have a tach? TO help know where your idle speed really is?

 

Still thinking... does it sound like it's sucking air when you try to put it in gear? That might be a vacuum line.