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I bought a 1963 shortbed step side truck and I'm trying to get her home. The P.O. changed the cap, rotor,points,oil,filter and vacuum advance. Can I use the dwell,timing, and gap measurements,etc., from a 1967 stovebolt repair manual?
Also and more importantly she back fires sometimes, if I rev her up and let off the gas. What else may cause this? The wires are on correctly. :confused:
Hope to hear from y'all soon, since I need to bring her home today (Sunday). :p

What engine does it have? V8 or 6 cyl? Has it been sitting long? Carbs. act up if they have been sitting, seals dry out accelerator pumps are sluggish. Sounds like the timing is retarded or it's running lean. Did you put fresh gas in? does it have an exhaust leak? air coming in to the pipes can cause this, but probably not. I have forgotten more about engines than I know anymore :o .

Just a WAG on my part. I am sure others will have better advice.

SBC with points: .019 or 30 degrees with the engine running, 1/8th allen wrench and a dwell meter.

Inline will be .016- .019, but I may be wrong. Should be enough to get you home, though.

Oops sorry , I looked over my post 3 times before I let it go. I could of sworn it was complete! The truck has a six in it. Unknown size, except I know it's not a 292. I'm not sure it's even the original motor. P.O., thought it might be a 250. I was able to check the dwell and reset it to 31', the plugs were dirty but usable. My parner in crime felt that she had a burnt valve, she certainly does have an exhuast leak. I did manage to get her home. OOOhhhh weeeee what a ride! The carb kept hicupping and she would back fire at the most in aproppriate times. I had to promise her that I would retire her motor if we ever made it home. We did, barely! At least I know the 4 speed tranny works fine and the oil guage works. The speedo,gas and every other guage or instrument doesn't though. This poor girl has been rode hard and put away wet, too, too, many times! There isn't a single panel on her that doesn't have a dent of some size. Luckily the 66' I bought recently came with spare parts! I already had extra doors. I will reframe her with a 1990 caprice frame. This frame has same wheel base as a short bed or Suburban. Obviously frame mounts will have to be moved. Since it's a decommissioned police car it has heavy duty brakes and equipment. I'll take pictures as I go along and keep y'all posted.

Those '66 doors ain't gonna fit a '63!

k10 is right. From 1960 to 1964 GM had the front posts slanted forward for a wrap around windshield look.(pretty sweet!) in 1965 and up they slanted the posts back for a flatter windshield. So alas, doors from '65 and up wont fit the older wrap-around models. Unless your saying that you had extra doors from a different truck from the same era as your '63, or am I wrong?

Now, I never said that I was going to use all the parts I got with my 66'. I happen to have two sets of 63 and older doors. One set I got off of a 63'chevy that I had to put "down". The doors were all that I kept, the other set is still hanging on a 62 gmc. Actually I'm going to use just the core support and fenders from the extra parts that came with the 66'.

By the way, I parted out a 63'londbed stepside about two years ago. First guy on the scene was from Hillsboro or somewhere on other side of town. Kept ramblin on about how he never got to be first to the table when it came to picking parts off a truck. He was driving a shortbed stepside. Was that anybody from this forum?