The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk stutter ... stutter ... dead ... ????

Hi,

I bought my first Chevy truck about eight weeks ago. It is a 1947 1-Ton Panel School Bus - all original. After a few test rounds, I drove it to work and longer routes without problems.

One weekend after painting a third of the truck with spray cans (no budget), I took it for a spin. On the way home, it started to stutter and cough. With a little more gas I barely got it home. Now it sits in the driveway and refuses to start. Any idea what could be wrong?

Thanks for any help,

Andy

P.S.: Any Stovebolters in Minnesota?

Maybe out of gas, carb clogged, fuel pump failure, charging system not working or the points closed up. Does the engine spin fast enough to start?

Assuming your battery is fully charged..

What first comes to mind is crud in the fuel tank. If it had been sitting awhile, it could have developed crap in the tank, and your driving around knocked it loose.. if thats the case, it would just be a matter of time before the crud made it to the fuel lines, pump, and filters and started choking the fuel supply.

I'd pop the fuel line off the carb and point it into a large metal coffee can or other suitable container, and crank the engine over.. see if she's squirting fuel.

If you're getting a good fuel supply (and you're not runnin' 'big easy' gas) then i'd check the points, coil, rotor, cap, condenser,, the usual ignition and electrical stuff.

46 has it right, especially if you filled up the tank recently. The pump can really stir up the junk in the tank/ I learned this lesson the hard way too. Had a nice little stroll in the snow a couple of years ago.

Andy,

If you take the "pump the gas into a coffee can" routine, make sure you have a little fire extinguisher or bucket of water around. Between leaking ignition stuff and hot spinning starters unplanned barbeque's and not fun.

These problems are usually a cause and effect situation. If there were issues with running out of gas, then the problem appears, that usually was the "cause" of the effect!


Stuart

atomarc has a good point.. take proper saftey steps before fiddling with fuel.. perhaps most importantly, do it in a well ventilated area.

I reccomed keeping a bucket of sand around for just such occasions.. spraying water on a gas fire can sometimes make things worse.

Another thing you might want to try if you ARE getting gas to the carb.. look down the carb hole and pump the throttle and see if it's squirting. If not give the side of the carb a few taps with the handle of a ratchet.

I had a carb do that to me once.. thing ran fine then just all of a sudden cut out and wouldn't start again. I checked the fuel lines and it was getting gas to the front of the carb, and it seemed like when I pumped it the jets were clear, but it just wouldn't start.

I could dump a little gas in the carb and she'd fire right off, and run till it burned up all the gas, but then it would die again.. I figured I must have had some "big easy" gas, and flushed the tank.

With a full tank of brand new gas, it still wasn't starting.. double checked the fuel supply to the carb, stood back, and said, "FV<k it!" and tossed my ratchet at the carb.

Then I heard a "Suuuuuulllllurrrrrrrp" noise, and thought what the hell, i'll try it again.. and it fired right up!

Something was sticking in there that was cutting the fuel supply off, and it wouldn't start. A medium power whack with a ratchet handle and the carb would make a sucking sound and then it would fire right up.

I ran a tank of clean gas thru it treated with some STP fuel cleaner crap, and it started fine ever since.. whatever was gunked up must have got de-gunked.

Or you can just get a can of hot-start or whatever they call ether in your area and then you won't put enough in there to conflaturate the place. And if it runs for a bit, then check the fuel system - the most likely culprit.