I was getting help in another thread, but I have a few more problems, so I'll ask them here. I've been working on an 85 F150 300 I6 I picked up from my god father for $300. It has 105k miles 4*4 and has the factory off road package(2in rear body lift and some silly skid plates). It sat in his field for about 4 years, but only took us a day to get it running and to my house. I spent the last year doing stuff such as replacing the power steering pump, box and pressure hose, painting the frame, replacing the shocks, new ehaust etc.
Now for the problems:
-The truck was having some issue I attributed to the carb, it would idle very rough and then eventually idle down suddenly to about 600 and die until it was warmed up. I had the idle screw set so that it would idle at around 1k. Then, on my way home from work, it would just idle down and die immediatley, once i finally got home i figured out the the choke stayed open all the time as if it didn't have a rebound spring neccessary. The only thing is, even when i keep the truck reved up for a few minutes it still idles down and dies. Any ideas?
-The second problem is the play in the steering, it was terrible at first but I found that I didn't tighten the bolt down that connects the pitman arm to the tie rod fully. It looks as thought there is still play in the ball joint at that location, what tools do I need and what pieces should I replace? Do you think a steering dampener would be a good investment also? the truck floats alot even at slow speeds
I think thats all for now, i'll post pics if you need them thanks for any input

 

Any carbed truck that sits around very long is going to need a kit in the carb. No way to get around it. It's a guarentee the fuel is going to gum up the carb, and all the diaphrams and gaskets dry out and get hard.

All of the joint pieces in the steering are available from the parts store. If you have a bad joint, then replace it. You buy the whole piece. Just be warned your alignment may be thrown out unless you are very careful when you replace the tie rod.

I would not buy a steering damper, unless you want to look cool. Get it driving correctly first, then buy the steering damper for looks, it's not needed on a properly repaired and aligned frontend.

 

Look cool? VW Beetles had dampers....yea I wanna look THAT cool!

 

Alright thanks for the advice, NAPA said $45 for a rebuild kit, sound reasonable? Also, do you think that the gummed up carb is the problem with the choke, or do you suspect there is no problem with the choke?

EDIT: The top of the tank isn't rotted out I pulled the tank off when I painted the frame, but I didn't replace fuel lines, only brake lines which I kind of regret.

 

I stopped into NAPA and ordered the carb rebuild kit yesterday, I also check most of of the vacuum lines using a method a car mechanic at a local garage told me to use. I described the problem and he said his best guess was that it was the fuel accelerater pump in the carb. Does this sound like a logical diagnosis?