yo,

Couple days ago my truck was having some trouble starting. I had a shop dig in and see what they could see since I'm a student in college with a full-enough plate as it is. They found that the starter soleionoid on the passenger-side fenderwell was loose. The holes were too big for the bolts, so it could have come ungrounded or only partially grounded. He also sent the duraspark 2 box to autozone, where they apparently have a tester that puts load on it and cycles a couple times. It failed. Turning it over revealed 3 or 4 scorch marks. So he installed a new one. I trust this guy alot and want to establish a rapport with him, but i was a little dissapointed once moving. I mean it started up just like it always did (seemingly half a turn and the thing roars to life with the unhindered eagerness of a brand new fuel injected engine). But once underway, it seemed a little funky. It didnt want to rev; there didnt seem to be a whole lot of power. And at 1600 or 1700 rpm, the thing kinda shuddered and hesitated. Almost like a misfire.

My questions, other than the generic whats wrong and what do i do about it, are these. Does the new Duraspark 2 box need time to "break in" or adjust to my engine? I just installed some new gauges for it, and i noticed that before i took it into the shop (and actaully had to have it towed) it showed 14 volts with the engine running. Now it shows 15. Is that normal, ok?

Im going to investigate further tomorrow. I didnt have the time to get it up to operating temprature today, so im hoping for the best. This is the coldest its been outside since owning the vehicle, so im thinking maybe whatevers wrong has been wrong all along and it just hasnt surfaced until now. I really dont want to spend any more money on it than i have to. Lemme know what you think.

By the way its an '83 F-250 with the inline and the 435.

 

15 seems a little high. I usually get about 14.3v



Jim

 

When was the last time the work horse had a tune up? With a untuned motor it put a strain on everything else. You know about the weak link and all of that. Try to keep up with the basis stuff and carry rain gear and good walking boots if you can't afford a rig and school. Look at the inside of your dizzy cap. That's a good place to see how the weather is acting on the sparky stuff. Look for other wear items ready to fall off.

 

Not sure. Its an 83 with only 89k miles. The previous owners werent too good to it because it was a university work truck, so the grounds grew who drove it or whatever beat the hell out of it because it wasnt theirs...Kinda bad i know but its not as bad as it sounds. It used to drive perfect, which is what has me buggered. I figured i should check the dizzy and all that. How many ohms per inch of resistance should the wires be at? How do i tell a good spark plug from a bad one?

 

Sounds like it's time for you to study up on general motor tune up. Get your hands on a shop manual for your motor. It will have everything you need to know. My van is a 85 and the Chilton repair manual works for me. There is good info on the web, but you never know where the info is coming from. A good shop manual is hard to beat.

 

DSII is a good ignition that could use a little help...try gofastforless.com for suggestions on inexpensive upgrades. Just the change to a TFI coil might help.
Also, the Cat converter might be plugged, the EGR valve may be shot.
Bucking, jerking, hesitation are not uncommon problems with a mid '80s 300. Even with a new Cat and EGR mine still ran like crap even though it passed emissions. Added a Mallory HyFire 6a box and a MSD Blaster2 coil and that took care of 95+% of the problem.

 

good to know someone else had the same problem and fixed it. Its just weird to me that this happened so suddenly. I parked it and it was fine, ran strong. 2 days later i fire it up and it starts chugging????