Bought a 86 Ford f150 300 that was sitting for a while. It has been well taken care of though. When you start it cold you have to pump the hell out of it to start. Also it will go down to idle and stall. Is the choke on the carb screwed up? OR any ideas?

Thanks matt

 

Could be old gas, could need a good tune-up, could need a good carb cleaning...there are endless possibilities.

I'd start with at least topping the tank off with some fresh fuel, change the fuel filter, and grab a can of carb cleaner. From there, an ignition tune-up would definitely be on the list, and then you can troubleshoot from there.

By taking the lid off the air-cleaner, you can watch the choke as the truck warms up. It should open slowly on it's own. If it starts to die, use a flat-blade screwdriver to open it up all the way and see if it stays running/runs better.

 

I put new spark plug wires, spark plugs, cap and rotor on it. I think I need to do the fuel filter also.

Where is the fuel filter located?


You think I should clean out the carb?

 

I would go ahead and rebuild the carb and replace the fuel filters. It's cheap and it couldn't hurt anything. Good Luck!

 

It sounds like a carburetor issue to me. Get yourself a can of SeaFoam and add it to your tank. I would replace the fuel filter, it screws right into the front of the carb inline with the fuel line. I would then grab a can of carb cleaner (SeaFoam is also available in aerosol) and go to town on that carburetor. If you choose to use SeaFoam, I am going to warn you, don't be alarmed when you see huge clouds of white smoke coming out of the exhaust. It is the nature of the product, it is very powerful stuff it eats carbon and varnish deposits very quickly. Give that a try, it that doesn't work, it might be the float in the carburetor is hanging up (Carter YFA 1bbls were notorious for this). My 84 F150 300 WAS plagued with carburetor problems like this too, I cured it by dumping the 1 bbl and installing a Cliffords adapter plate and a Holley 2300 series 350 cfm 2bbl. Both power and gas mileage greatly benefitted from this mod. Anyway back to what I was saying, take a very light ball/peen hammer or dead blow and tap the top of the fuel bowl and this should break the float free, you should see a difference in the idle immediately. If that doesn't help then you are probably due for a carb rebuild or replacement. You mentioned the truck had been sitting for a while, it's a sure bet the fuel bowl is gummed up pretty good with varnish and goopy stuff. If it was me I would rebuild the carburetor right off the bat because it has been sitting a while and the seals are most likely dried out and will start leaking eventually. The rebuild kits are cheap (around $20) and easy to come by, those 1bbl carbs are very simple and easy rebuild. The kits come with instructions and an exploded illustration of how it goes together. Hopefully this helps, good luck!