The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts 1965 C60 w/409 fuel or electric problem

This truck is driving me crazy. Drove it one day, everything's fine. Next day I start it, it runs for about a minute or two, and then acts like I just pulled the choke on it, spits and sputters and the tach jumps around. Shut it off, wait ten or fifteen minutes and it's fine. I thought fuel delivery, renewed everything, still does it. My mechanic thinks it's electrical so we change the ignition parts, wires, plugs, etc., no change. He thinks maybe something's going on with the tach. Disconnect it and still the same. This truck only has 28K miles on it but it did sit unused for a number of years. Had a governed carb on it which I changed to an AFB with a manual choke. Ran fantastic until now.
Any ideas? Thanks

Try changing the condenser, assuming it's still got an original ignition system. There's also a remote possibility of a coil breaking down as it gets hot, but I can count the true coil failures I've seen in the past 50-something years on the fingers of both hands, with a few left over!
Jerry

Changed the condenser along with the coil when we changed all the electrical parts. Of course that doesn't mean we couldn't have gotten a dud even though they were new parts. Thanks for the input.

Does anyone know of an HEI distributor that would fit the 348/409 engines. I tried Jeg's, Speedway, and the like but they don't have such a thing.

You say it set for awhile, so, maybe there is crud in the gas tank working its way to the pick-up and when you shut it down the crud moves away from the pick-up.

Possible. I had the gas tank cleaned at the local radiator shop but I've been told that the cleaning process could leave some residue in the tank. I pulled the top off the carb and couldn't see any bad things in there but that doesn't mean there might not be a block somewhere else. Thanks.

That kind of sounds the way my '53 Chevrolet COE did, when I first got it. Unloaded it at the old railroad depot, & drove it about a mile home, with no problems. From the next day forward, I had the same problems as you. It had done a lot of sitting before I purchased it. I figured it may be a fuel tank issue, so I disconnected the fuel line between the fuel tank, and fuel pump, and ran it straight to a jug of fresh gasoline. Ran like a top again. I replaced the fuel tank with a new one, and never had the problems again.

MSD makes a electronic distributor for w motors.

Since I've tried almost everything else I think I'll target the gas tank. About the time all this started the fuel gauge started acting up also. Maybe there's a connection there. Thanks for all the help but I'm still open to ideas.

a clear plastic fuel filter between the fuel pump and carb lets you see if you have gas there or not. That is an easy way to see if it is starving for fuel when it dies. (also taking off the air cleaner and looking down the carb as you open the throttle to see if the throttle pump (and float bowl) has gas in it)

Lots of things to check out thanks to all the good suggestions that have been made. I think I'll start with the fuel side of it and see where that goes. In checking the electrics (ignition parts, coil, etc.) I noticed there seems to be a lot going on around the base of the distributor. I know this isn't a tach drive because the tach is run off a wire to the coil so I'm wondering if it might be some sort of governor or rev limiter in which case that may be a problem,too.

Look for a vacuum leak, you may have a hose that it loose and sometimes it's seated and everything works and then it gets loose and the problems back. I had this happen to me and it was the large 1/2 hose connected to the intake that wasn't tight. To eliminate vaccume as a possible issue remove the large hose at the intake and cap the intake fitting...does it run any better?

The line coming off of the bottom of the distributer is part of the governor.

Mike B

I hate playing guessing games when it comes to diagnosing a problem. The logical KISS approach would be to disconnect AND PLUG the fuel line to the carb. Set up a clean gallon can with an electric pump and plumb into carb. If it runs okay it's a fuel problem and if not an ignition problem. If a fuel problem delete the electric pump and plumb gallon can to inlet side of fuel pump; if okay then pump is eliminated and problem is with line or tank. If in ignition find someone with an engine analyzer or a Sun machine to check out distributor. Pertronix makes a stand alone distributor for about 300 bucks or an electronic conversion for around a 100 but having your distributor checked would be a first choice I'd think. The Sun machine checks just the distributor while the engine analyzer checks the cap, wire, and plugs also.

Ordered a Pertronix distributor not because I think it was part of the problem but just because I like the idea of updating that part. Blocked the line from the fuel tank and ran a line to a container of fresh gas as was suggested but in doing so was surprised to find a frame mounted fuel filter in the line that I didn't know was there. It was kind of hidden behind the vacuum tank. After working for an hour or so I got the filter canister loose and, though there was no filter inside, there was the ugliest collection of debris you could imagine along with liquid (gas?) the color and consistency of muddy water. Took the whole thing loose and threw it away. Now, with the line to a gas can, the truck runs fine. Still think maybe the fuel tank is part of the problem so may replace that just to make sure. Thank you all for your help and suggestions. It's nice to know there are folks out there willing to help.

I had the same issue. I cleaned the tank myself (after watching youtube "how to" videos) and then bought the POR15 tank sealer. Replaced the lines and pump and installed a carb kit (Youtube again) and she runs like a top! Pretty easy....

Thanks to everyone who offered help. Had a twofold problem, one being the fuel delivery which was fixed by removing the old inline filter that I didn't know I had, the other was the distributor which was equipped with it's own governor. When I got the truck it had the original governed Rochester carb on it which I swapped for an AFB but I had no idea the distributor also had a governor. Anyway the Pertronix distributor fixed that one. So now the old 409 runs like a champ and has the power I hoped it would have. Thanks, again, to everyone.

I had the same thing on three different trucks. 1 the pick up from the top of the tank had a pin hole in the steel line from rust out.Looked ok till I pulled it.The gas level went low and the pump lost it suction. 2 Some jerk stuck a piece of heater hose over the pick up on the and redirected upward, to avoid sucking up dirt or the water in the tank. the hose got gooie and collapsed. 3 The petcock on the bottom of a tank got full of rust over time and got sturred and partially blocked the bulkhead hole. I also had someone jammed a fuel filter on top of another in a Ford fuel pump and when the engine need maximum amount fuel, the engine would stumble.Most of these issues were from trucks that all sat for years and people just pushed into service without going thru the whole truck first

Those engines were governed for a reason. One over-rev and you'll have a good boat anchor. The W-head engines try to swallow valves above 5500 RPM, so put a tach on it and watch out about letting it wind up in the lower gears. I remember those engines well from back in the late 50's/early 60's. 348's had the same problem.
Jerry

The truck came with a factory tach as part of the dashboard display and it's redlined at 4000rpm. It's also quite accurate as I have checked it with a good aftermarket unit. Since it's large and staring me in the face all the time I don't worry to much about over-revving the engine. Operating range as displayed on the tach is between 2500 and 4000rpm. Thanks for the input.