The Stovebolt Site Forums Welcome! Welcome Centre Do It Yourself (DITY) Gallery 1948 Chevy 3600 - "Fumbling about"

Hello All,

I, like most, have a problem. Some may call it an addiction. Most of the time it doesn't cause any issues, but sometimes it flares up and gives me major grief and financial burden.

I am referring to, of course, looking at old trucks for sale -- be it on Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, or just on the side of the road. Regardless of the condition, if a truck is ~45 years old or older something deep down inside of me says, "That's cool. You should look at it and maybe even think about buying it..."

Well, a few months ago I saw a 1948 Chevy pickup listed online and it was the coolest-looking truck I'd ever seen. Fast forward to last week and I managed to both save enough $$ to grab it and to convince myself that it wasn't completely idiotic to buy another old, junky project vehicle at this stage in my life. (Well, maybe I just convinced myself to ignore the latter point even though said point is most definitely a fact. But I digress...).

So, on a Tuesday night after work when I had somehow managed to convince one of my buddies to drive me ~2 hours and 150 miles away from home. I set out on a mission to buy that truck and bring it home.

From the get go I knew that the truck ran, drove, and stopped. Well, all I really knew was that it drove up and down a gravel road under my control at 10mph and that the previous owner had told me he'd taken it into town a few times. I also knew that the headlights were the only functional lights, however my friend was going to tail me on the way back. All that was good enough for me, so I paid the man, hopped in the truck, strapped my bluetooth speaker to the steering wheel and turned on some Red Foley (somehow my music taste dips into times even older than the truck!), and got on the road.

By the time I was driving the '48 away it was ~6 hours since I or my friend had eaten. So the first stop was a burger joint 10 minutes down the road. Five minutes into the journey, I had learned a few things about the truck:

#1: It is the coolest thing ever.
#2: It only goes 43mph.
#3 The truck is alot less stiff than I anticipated and the shocks are terrible. (I later learned that the rear shocks are disconnected for some reason).

Nine minutes into that first leg of the journey I learned that the brakes no longer worked. I tried to stop at a stoplight and the pedal went straight to the floor. I tried the pedal three more times to almost no avail. I tried to parking brake for the first time only to figure out it was seized. So I did exactly what I hoped I wouldn't do: I panicked and held the pedal to the floor while my mind raced to come up with other ideas to not bump into the car in front of me at my speed of 2mph. (It later occurred to me that I should have tried jamming the truck in gear and shutting the engine off.) Well I got lucky and the brakes had just barely enough to stop me before I hit the car. So I took the left turn at the light, pulled into the Walmart parking lot, found a quiet corner, and parked the truck before anything bad happened.

At that point my nerves were a little frayed and my dreams were close to shattering, but while my buddy grabbed food, I decided to check the master cylinder. After five minutes of searching, I finally found it, and lo and behold it was completely empty.

A little bit of brake fluid and what felt like a million pumps of the brake pedal later, and the brakes were feeling more solid than ever. They still need to be adjusted, but after a pump or two, they firmed right up and stopped the truck. I won't say they stopped it well, especially compared to my 2005 Dodge or even my 1966 Jeep, but they do stop the truck.

After burgers, it was time for the real journey to begin. The interstate was not an option (obviously) and the interweb mapping websites told me the trip home on backroads would take three hours, so I foolishly estimated four hours.

The actual drive home went pretty well. Other than the drive taking six hours instead of three or four, my accidental pulling of the apparently very sticky choke cable while tying to figure out how to open the cowl vent, and the rear ladder rack bar trying to fall off of the camper shell, it was trouble free, reasonably comfortable, and a boatload of fun.

I made two gas stops and made around 8mpg, but the truck has carb issues which I'll go into detail on in a later post...

On the second gas stop it was starting to get dark, and I still had no marker lights. So rather than use skill or intellect (I have neither) to whip up a marker light or suitable alternative, I took my LED-converted 2D Maglite flashlight, wrapped a red pair of shorts around it, turned the light on, and taped it to the rear bumper. It was total garbage, but my buddy reported that it worked well, especially on the dusty dirt roads I was to hit later in the trip.

Although it did take six hours, somehow the truck made it the whole ~150 miles back home under its own power. I was quite impressed by it considering that the truck has been out of driver-duty since '99 and has only a made small in-town trips in the past couple of years. On another note, somehow my friend had the patience to sit behind me for six hours at 43mph, and I definitely owe him one for that.

Well, if you read through that whole bumble of text, I applaud you. If you just scrolled down to here, I can't blame you because I secretly do the same thing. Either way your patience (or lack thereof) will now be rewarded with pictures of my newest bad decision:

Hey, no apologies necessary. Your story held me captive all the way through. You have a knack for storytelling.

Awesome truck. I hope you have many more trips with it. Hopefully less eventful than your first.

This is a great story. Really looking forward to more. I agree with Kevin: you are an awesome story teller. Kept my interest to the end. AND you have a good eye for photos.

I agree with both Peggy and Kevin, you held my interest too. Good luck with your build and you have another follower!

These addictions are almost impossible to cure. I'm following!

T.M. - Your story telling skills kept me riveted to my seat the whole time. Addicted you say, Oh Heck Yes!!! LOL

I admit to severely suffer from the malady, most often with a grin from ear to ear, but wouldn't consider giving it up even when sometimes the frustration level hits moon high.

I'll look forward to each and every chapter of your story about this fine looking truck, and hope we can be of some help on the journey. If someone comes up with a cure for our addiction/sickness/malady/whatever, I'll turn it down in a heart beat.

Enjoyed the story too! Looks like the seat has been recovered, so you can check that off the list. 🙂

Thanks for the warm welcome. I'm glad my storytelling and photography skills can keep at least a few people entertained.


Here's a bit more story:

I took the truck for a 50-ish mile journey a few days ago. I'm finding out that going 43mph is alot worse in town than it is on deserted old backroads. I was hoping to hold out for Novak's overdrive to come out and to put one of those on the truck (more on that later), but a rear end gear swap has definitely moved up a few notches on the 'ol mental list. Other than that the drive was going pretty well until I stopped at the local Harbor Freight, bought some cheap chinese junky tools that I'll lose before I break, came back out to the truck, and turned the engine over. Note that I did not say "started the engine." That's because the engine did not start.

Well, I was in a real pickle because hours before I revealed my dumb vehicular purchase to my father who was not very pleased with it. Because of this, although he lives close by, I couldn't immediately call him and ask for help because then his (completely fair) opinion would be proven true.

So I grabbed my toolbag out of the back of the truck, popped the hood of the truck, and started monkeying with stuff. At first I thought it was a fuel issue because I have bad luck with fuel pumps, so I started trying to figure it out. On my '66 Jeep I can simply pull the hood off (It slides out of the hinges via convenient slots), remove a hose clamp, and angle the hose to where I can see fuel spraying into a rag while cranking the engine over via the ignition key inside the Jeep. Between hardlines and no easy way of looking under the hood while running the electric starter, I was drawing a bit of a blank on what to do.
I decided to see if I could get it running by dumping gas down the carb, so I grabbed my trusty Tru-Fuel, poured way too much down the carb, and got the truck fired up. I learned that it wouldn't stay running without me holding the throttle in a bit, so I thought "Well, maybe I'll mess with the idle speed." I got it to stay running poorly and quickly, but running nonetheless.

After limping to the gas station and nearly killing it a few times I decided that that day would be my introduction into carburetor tuning. I always say "What's it gonna do, not work even more?" and I decided to apply that to the poorly working carburetor instead of just completely broken parts as is normal. With only two screws to mess with and one being obviously the idle speed screw, my carb-dumb self was able to get lucky and get it running much better. Still pretty crappily, but good enough that I decided to risk driving the truck again, and I was able to make it all the way home without killing the engine.

After getting home I decided to do some digging and minor research. The first thing I learned is that the chineseium carburetor that's on the truck is patterned off of the original Rochester B carb, and the spare carb I got with the truck is a real Rochester B carb, possibly the original. The second thing I learned is that the "other screw" on the carburetor that I was ham-handedly messing with was the idle mixture adjustment screw. The third thing I learned was the truck ran best with the idle mixture adjustment screw screwed all of the way in. Hmm...
I got the truck idling again and pulled the air cleaner (Surprisingly I recognized that it was an oil bath air cleaner before ripping it off, so I avoided dumping any oil on myself). I took a look down the carb and noticed a sizeable fuel leak coming from where the bowl meets the top 1/3rd of the carb, dumping fuel directly down the throat of the carb. That explained both why it would only run with the idle mixture screw turned all of the way in and why it would smoke like James Bond's Aston Martin at stoplights.

With that problem diagnosed I immediately moved on to ordering a rebuild kit, then 20 seconds later ran out of time and went on to more important things before actually getting a rebuild kit on order.
I have what I think is the original Rochester B sitting on my toolbox, and the PO said he had it rebuilt at some point, so I may try to either disassemble it, clean it, toss it back together, and slap it on the truck or I may just steal the gasket off of it and use said gasket on the chineseium carb.
I'm not sure if I want to spend too much $$ on this carb. I've read alot of mixed things on what carb is the best for these old trucks, but I don't see Rochesters named too often. Plus I eventually want to try out a bunch of different carburetors on my truck as my old-guy-pet-project and figure out what works best for me. So I'll probably just get it running as cheaply as I can to an acceptable standard and call it good until I put a different carb on the truck.


And some unrelated pictures that I just want to share:

Although the truck is a bit dead in the water right now, I did take it and the Jeep out and got a few good pics of them together. I wish I had a good camera, but I'm sure these will go on the wall eventually even though they were just taken on a cell phone. Anyways, here are the pics of that because I don't have any pics of the previously-mentioned carburetor adventure and word-only posts are boring:

I have a Rochester B on my 235. My plan is to use it until I rebuild my Carter. After my first test drives, I'm thinking I should rebuild the Carter sooner than later. My engine struggles when taking off from stops. I have to feather the pedal to get the revs up or it will die.

It's easy to do and satisfying as well. No time like the present.

Wow!!! More of the saga. You continue to amaze ...

On the carb issue, maybe folks in the in the Engine Bay can help. Jon knows muchos about carburetors.

Your old Chevy sure looks like a typical rescued Southern Idaho rig. "Sun scorched but not real rusty." It took some nerve to hop in your new found rig and drive it home 150 miles in the heat of summer, even with your good buddy following you.

No progress today, but here's a bit more writeup that I've been meaning to put down on digital paper.

First off, here's a basic "details, specs, and features" list for the truck, bullet point style:
- 1948 Chevrolet 3600 (3/4 ton) Thriftmaster
- Full pressure oiled, insert-bearing 235 engine swapped in by a previous owner
- 12V converted by a PO
- Rochester B carburetor on the bench, and a chinese Rochester B knockoff on the truck
- SM420 4-speed transmission
- Eaton H052 rear axle with 4.57 gearset and open diff
- Factory heater in unknown operating condition
- Cool old camper shell that needs alot of work but all of the parts are there
- Spotlight that is currently inoperative
- Odometer is broken around 33k, but judging by the accelerator pedal wear the truck definitely has at least 133k if not 233k. Hard to imagine an old truck like that putting down more than 200k miles, but I was told that the previous previous (x2) owner used it as a daily driver until he died, so I don't know if I'd say it's an impossibility
- Recovered seat (as some have noticed) done under the PO's ownership
- At some point it had front and rear turn signals installed and wired. I broke both taillights trying to fix them, so the truck is currently cruising with a single Harbor Freight magnetic trailer light on the rear until I get a plan down and in progress

Secondly, here's my "to do" list as it sits right now. I'll try to keep it somewhat organized by urgency and ease of completion:
- Basic maintenance
- Change all fluids
- Grease all suspension and steering components
- Put in a seatbelt
- Bleed the brakes so they work a bit better (Well, at least a bit more mediocre-ly. [I've been spoiled by modern brakes...])
- Free up and/or lubricate:
- Throttle linkage
- Choke cable
- Cowl vent
- Parking brake
- Seat track lock and control
- Find and install 2 new taillights and re-wire-in turn signals.
- Improve headlights (I drive to work before sunrise, and the headlights that are currently on the truck are quite terrible)
- Reconnect vacuum wipers
- Operational check of cab heater, fix if necessary
- Figure out why rear shocks are disconnected and replace or reconnect them
- Add a side toolbox on driver's side of bed
- Kind of a stupid thing, but I want somewhere good to store spare parts so I'll probably toss an ammo can or toolbox on there so I can keep a fuel pump, carb, and dizzy on hand among other basic parts.
- Look into swapping in a vacuum/fuel combo pump to hook to vacuum wipers
- Improve stopping
- Depending on how bad the brakes still are after a bleed, I may look into disk swapping it
- Improve top speed while keeping stock rear axle
- It seems the tried-and-true method is a 4.11 rear end gear swap which is an option, though I've read it's becoming hard to find those these days
- What I'd like to do (if it's financially feasible) is install an overdrive unit. Novak Conversions, who I am well familiar with due to ordering many Jeep parts from them, is supposed to be bringing out a gear-driven, 2-speed, manual-shift, .76:1-high ratio overdrive sometime soon. It is supposed to bolt to SM420s, SM465s, T18s, and NP435s.

That's all I can think of right now. I may edit the list later if I think of or remember more projects that need to be fixed.

Ignorant question, but is that not the normal? I thought one always applies throttle while coming off of the clutch, but that may just be because I'm used to my Jeep which is 20 years newer and much faster.

I have been starting off in my '48 with just the tiniest bit of throttle added. If I don't add enough the truck feels like it wants to die. If I add too much the whole truck will shake like it is in a tornado, but I'm still not sure if that's due to an engine issue, a clutch issue, or me just sucking at driving the truck.

Utah's problem is a crappy carburetor. I think if he steps on it it will conk out. He has to coax it up to speed.

Yes - That's what I was trying say.

This past Saturday I tried to pull apart the old Rochester carb, but broke the gasket on it so no beans on the planned gasket or carb swap. On the bright side it looks quite clean inside and everything seems to move freely, so I might use it. I got a gasket kit on order so hopefully I'll be able to get it back together this weekend.

Overall, it's even simple than the already dirt-simple Rochester 2G that's on my Jeep, but there still a few things that I don't understand yet. I'll have to do some research on the B and figure out how it all works.


It seems I never mentioned that I thrash-installed a new temporary taillight. I picked up a set of magnetic trailer lights from Harbor Freight and then fixed a sticky brake light switch and struggled to figure out a PO's turn signal wiring before giving up, continuity checking to find a wire that went from the signal wiring to the back of the truck, snipping that wire off, and hooking it directly to the wire coming off of the brake light switch before said wire goes into the turn signal unit. Since all of the confusing turn signal and trailer wiring is bypassed, I had a simple but functional single brake light.

Well, today I finally got a marker light wired too. Luckily one of the hundred wires at the back of the truck happened to send 12v out with the headlight switch on, so I just wired it up and ops-checked it before celebrating with a soda that probably won't let me sleep tonight.

With both a marker and a brake light, the truck is finally street legal again, not to mention infinitely safer for when I eventually attempt the pre-sunrise drive into work. Now I just need to make it run again...


No pics this time as my "smart" phone (which acts as the camera for all of my mechanical adventures) is broken. Just look at one of the previous pictures and try to imagine that the brake light is on whenever it's dark out and that it gets brighter when I press the pedal.

Which gasket on your B did you break? I've got a bunch of NOS partial B carb gasket kits that could provide what you need and I'd be glad to share. We can chat via PM if you tell me which one you need and I can confirm I have it.

I put in an order for a gasket kit already (Somehow I forgot to mention that in my post), but I really appreciate the offer.

I see you added that note to your post. All good. You should start a thread in the Engine Shop so you can ask questions about your "B" and allow others to share their experience and knowledge on the topic.

Here's a link to an original Chevrolet 1952 Rochester B Filmstrip from Brad Allen's collection that you can read through at your leisure to take the next step in your carburetor knowledge journey.

A few days ago I got the gasket kit in and replaced the leaky gasket in the chineseium carb. It barely helped and the truck was still running rich enough to smoke me out of the garage.

I had also pulled the glass bowl off of the Carter carburetor fuel filter assembly and found the gasket to be in pretty bad shape. I tossed it back together hoping for the best, but as soon as the truck was idling fuel started spraying all over the head and manifolds from the filter. I haven't been able to find a good source for those gaskets yet, so I picked up a sheet of cork from Tractor Supply and cut out a gasket. It's working for now so I have my fingers crossed it won't leak any time soon. I'll include a pic of that since it's the only picture I remembered to take of this whole fuel system fixing process.

This past weekend I decided to tear it down a bit further. I cleaned out most of the passages, replaced the needle and seat, and reset the float levels. Surprisingly to me, after just a little bit of idle mixture screw adjustment, the truck starts and idles like a dream and drives down the road even better than it used to. With that being my first success fixing a carb, it brings my total carburetor-fixage success rate to ~7%, but I'll take it.


After taking the freshly-fixed truck around the block I couldn't resist being a little dumb and I drove it down to the grocery store 5 minutes down the road. Unfortunately the fuel delivery stuff didn't fix the absolute wall the truck hits at 43mph, but I might have a lead on it. Despite the slow speed and upsetting other drivers, the truck made it there and back which was a huge win for me.


The previous owner told me that he was pretty sure the vacuum timing advance was inoperative. I've finally gotten around to giving it the 'ol lung test starting at the carb vacuum fitting, and it holds zero vacuum or pressure and the dizzy doesn't move at all. I'm not sure if it's the bellows themselves or the line yet.

I imagine it's possible that's causing the low top speed? Obviously the truck won't be a speed demon, but once it hits 43mph adding any throttle makes the truck feel like it's bogging and it makes some funky noises under the hood that I cannot identify. Either way I think I'll tackle fixing the vacuum advance next.

Nice work on the gasket! 👍

Look for an exhaust restriction- - - - -Loosen the pipe flange where the exhaust pipe meets the manifold- - - -about a 1/2" gap will be plenty. I've seen a few mufflers packed with acorns by squirrels or chipmunks, and the vehicle won't get out of its own way. Take a test drive and see if the speed improves. Ditto for a restricted air cleaner. Engines have to breathe to make highway speed.
Jerry

I didn't consider that being a possible issue before, but thinking back there is definitely a crunch in the exhaust that I've seen under the truck. It didn't look bad, but it can't hurt to move it up a few notches on the "fix" list. Once I get a new bottle of mixed gas and a bit of tubing I can chop it off and weld a new bend in. I'll try your manifold-loosening method first though.

I tried the loose-exhaust trick but to no avail. It did make the truck sound a bit better though. The current exhaust is so quiet I can hardly hear when the truck is running, which makes starting a pain sometimes.


I pulled the vacuum advance line and gave it a pressure test via lungs and a finger to lug one end, and it holds pressure just fine. Looks like it's the advance unit itsself that is the issue. I'm looking for a replacement now.


After doing that I decided to go on a side-quest to find and decipher all of the engine numbers for the sake of fun (that is the main reason I bought the truck after all). Through the use of enough chemicals to reduce my lifespan by a few weeks I was able to clean all of the grease off of the engine casting number and S/N. I decided to pull the starter to check the CON number as well. I have all of the numbers now but have yet to decipher them. I'll look into it in the next couple of days.


Something I may have forgot to mention is the starter issue. For some reason the starter only actually catches about 35% of the time (And that's the IMPROVED percentage now that I've learned that it seems to like being pushed a certain way) so I always feel pretty trashy having to grind the flywheel 2 or 3 times in the parking lot before I can actually get the truck started.

Well, now that I have the starter off, I've decided that I'll pull it apart and give the internals a detailed inspection. I haven't gotten to that yet, but what I did notice is that there is alot of play in the shaft that holds the rotor and starter. I'm not sure what the allowable play is, but I'm getting 0.106 inches of play based on a quick measurement with some calipers. I'll have to do some research and figure out if that's giving me the issue.

Since you're looking to do your own engine decoding, I'll sit back and let you have your fun, then check your work afterwards - lol!

Yeah, that starter shaft play is out of bounds for sure, but looking at the last picture with the shaft end inside the bushing, I'm trying to see where your finding a tenth of an inch of movement. Maybe I'm not understanding what part your measuring/describing???

You should take a look at the flywheel ring gear for excessive tooth wear or even bad sections. If the starter drive gear is trying to engage on a badly worn ring gear, you'll get the same grinding/no start results.

You've never mentioned whether your truck is the original 6 volt or 12 volt. If it's 12 volt, there's a possibility that someone has swapped a 12v armature into a 6v starter. There's a difference of about .03 inches which would account for some of that play you mentioned on the shaft bushing. Your starter appears to be a 6V (at least the housing) as evidenced by the black Delco-Remy tag on it. I don't know if swapping armatures is even possible, but worth looking at. There's some good info HERE on the differences between 6v and 12v flywheels and starters. They have to be matched up (a mismatch will tear up the gears.)

My quick measure was the shaft end inside of the bushing. That pic shows it pushed back as far as it falls, but it also slides forward until the shaft is almost flush with the end of the starter. I'll attach a photograph of what I was measuring.

I'll have to check out the ring gear as well then. I haven't looked under the truck too much yet but I think I remember there being a cover plate under the bellhousing and it looks like it'll come off and give me good access to the flywheel. Then I just need to pull the spark plugs so I can turn it easily and I'll give the whole thing a detailed inspection.

You're right, I never mentioned that. The truck has been converted to 12V. I edited my "specs and details" post with that information.

The play issue is that the shaft slides forward and aft, not side to side or up and down as (from my understanding of your post) you're suggesting. However, I'll have to figure out what starter I have based on that linked information. Thanks for the link.

Looks like a 6 volt starter (has a black label, 12 volts have red labels) equipped with a 12 volt switch (has the stud on the side to bypass the ballast resistor while the starter is engaged). For further identification info on 6v vs. 12v starters and their companion flywheels see THIS. EDIT: Ooops I just noticed Kevin already pointed you there.

I don't know of a spec for end play, but maybe someone left out one or both 7.2820 washers shown in the attachment.

Sorry all - I didn't mean to start a tech discussion (starter topic) in the DITY. These last few post can get moved to the Electrical Bay for further discussion and help in resolving the problem, as that's the best place for the in-depth conversation.

Then "T.M." can post a follow-up here in the DITY on what was discovered and fixed (can come later if it takes a while) to keep the story here going on the projects overall progress.

Sound like a plan?

Holy crapshow, Batman

I didn't mean to take this long between updates, but what I expected to be a quick vacuum-advance unit replacement turned into one problem after another.

I found a NOS advance unit and got some solid motivation at the start, but after pulling the plugs, wires, and distributor and slapping the advance unit onto the dizzy I realized I had no idea what I was doing. I was following a couple of tech guides on Deve's Technical Network, but I'd never done timing before and hit a bit of a mental block. After a couple of days I thought I had it all figured it out, but I couldn't figure out for the life of me how to static time it as I couldn't get electrical power through the coil which was baffling me.

A few days and a bit of electrical troubleshooting later I figured out that the starter switch was shorting electrical power directly through the frame of the starter and to ground. Either I tightened the nut down too tight or the integral washer was too loose, because when I tightened it down the lug turned, and this shifted the internal parts until they broke through the cardboard insulator and made a connection from the positive lug directly to the switch body.

I put a new starter switch on it and struggled for another day to figure out static timing, but eventually got it set up pretty well. Then came the moment of truth...or so I thought. I pumped the gas pedal, applied just a bit of choke, and pushed in the starter pedal and...nothing. The starter wouldn't work.

After a bunch more troubleshooting on the starter, disassembling, cleaning, and reassembling it multiple times, re-seating the brushes, and re-cleaning it, I finally got it to work. I think there was just a continuity issue between the starter switch and the positive post on the starter itself. I'm not fully sure though, so I still have the starter removal tools sitting on the dashboard.

I finally got it started and it ran like dog crap for a few minutes, I think due to bad gas, but it smoothed out after a few minutes. It was time for the big test, so I loaded all of my tools in the truck, took it around the block a few times to gain confidence, and then hit the long, straight farm road nearby. And I got up to a whopping 44mph. So in total I've made an improvement of 1mph and that improvement may or may not have been a fluke. Bah humbug!

Am I just expecting too much from this truck? The rear end has the factory 4.57:1 gear set and it's only on 28" of rubber, but I thought I could at least push it to 50mph. On paper the truck should hit 50mph at ~2750 RPM and 55 at ~3,000 RPM. Are these 235s really that low-revving of engines, or is there likely still some problem I have yet to discover?

I did have a small victory in figuring out that the idle speed screw likes to back off, which is why the truck died on me last time I went to the gas station. The screw is torque-striped now, and that alone seems to be holding the screw in position.

Your calculations are correct.

So the 44mph was "all in" as far as the throttle goes?

After the static timing was set, did you ever set the timing while the engine was running? Was the vacuum advance disabled while you set the timing? Was idle speed at the prescribed value for setting the timing? (Reason I'm asking is that is because these distributors start adding in timing advance right at 400 rpm.)

I ran the truck to work today, and it only likes to do 42-43, so no real improvement was made.

There is still plenty of throttle left (1/2-2/3 of the travel I’d say) but if I add more throttle the engine just starts to run worse. It surges and drops a bit and makes some kind of popping noise.

I did check the timing with the engine running and it was right on (the pointer lined up with the pressed-in ball bearing), but only with the vacuum advance connected, and somehow I completely forgot to figure in RPM. I’ll need to hook up a tach or something I suppose. I’ll poke around in the manual some more and try to figure that out.

Is there any chance that, since I have a 6-volt truck’s flywheel (possibly original to the truck) on a 235 engine (that I believe was built in 1957), the timing marks aren’t correct to the engine? I don’t see why the marks would change, but I figured I’d ask just in case it’s a known issue with these trucks that I’m unaware of.

If the popping sound is a backfire, it could be too rich. Your accelerator pump might be leaking into the carb throat. Float level might be too high, valve and seat might be stuck open, etc.

What's the story on the carb? Rebuilt? After shutting down hot, look down the throat of the carb and see if fuel is dribbling or pooling on the intake runner.

Ignore the ball and set the timing by lining up #1 wire with the rotor when #1 cyl is at TDC. You can put a straw in the plug hole or put your thumb over the hole or take off the valve cover and observe to determine when #1cyl is at TDC.

The BB will either line up or it won't but you'll at least know that your timing is set correctly.

You said it ran like crap due to bad gas. Drain the tank and add fresh gas. Mixing good gas with bad gas does not make bad gas good.

The carb is a new-ish chineseium unit based off of a Rochester B. It came on the truck. It did have a fuel leak down the throat, but I put new gaskets in it and reset the float level, and it has no leaks as far as I can see.

I'll try and check the timing relative to TDC next time I'm under the hood.

The gas in it was only a few weeks old, so I don't really see why it would all be bad, but it did certainly smell funky (the same smell as when I pull fuel system parts out of trucks that've been sitting in the local junkyard for a while) so that's why I suspected bad gas. Since it has been running the gas smells fine and the truck runs alright. I'm not sure if it had bad crap in the lines and the rest of it is alright, if all of the gas is bad and the truck just happens to run (ish) on it, or if something else was causing the starting issue.

T.M. - There are multiple flywheels over the years, even for the 6 volt ones. Here's an old on topic thread on different flywheels that can give some ideas on what yours is and how it may relate to your '57 235 and timing.

It might be best to post a thread in the Engine Shop to chase this rabbit and figure out what you have and what your timing setting needs to be.

Just remember that the timing setting for your '57 235 needs to match the original '57 specs and not the ones for the '48 model year. Same for spark plugs etc. etc.

On the topic of your off-shore replica Rochester B, from the majority of posts and customer comments I've read about them, those are even worse than really bad original Rochester B's, right out of the box. Just my $.02 worth, but at a minimum I'd suggest findings an original correct Rochester B and rebuild it, or even better yet, find a Carter YF2100S and rebuild it to replace that paper weight you currently have. You will be immensely happier with your performance.