The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot '60-'66 Trucks Started working on the 61 GMC

It's time to start work on this 61GMC with a 10ft camper. The truck has been sitting since the early-mid 90's and I put it on a trailer to get it to the storage place. I found that the brakes are dry, fuel bad and no battery. I started pulling out the old fuel out of the saddle tank and it looked like rootbeer. I looks like they stored it with two full tanks of gas. I only enough gas cans to pull out 15 gal from the saddle tank. How do you get rid of the bad gas now? can't put it a trash can and burn it. (if this stuff would burn) They put me in jail. I don't want to give up the $75 in gas cans either. NAPA won't take it. Put the battery in and turned the key to see what worked or not. I didn't wnat totry and turn it over until I pulled out the plugs and squirted some light machine oil in the cylinders. Got to get rid of the old gas then fill it with some new. I really need to get teh brakes working before I start it since it's an auto without a park if it started in gear I may not be able to stop it.

Stop! Don't just get rid of the old gas and fill it up with new gas! You have proven to yourself that the fuel is BAD! The entire fuel system needs to be methodically cleaned and corrected. If you have rubber fuel line, now is the time to pull out the old line and replace it with new ethanol resistant line. The new gas will eat up the old line. Take the tank out and clean it any way you can and then seal it. Some guys put gravel in the tank and slosh it around for a few days. Then buy a tank sealer and use it. OR buy a new tank from LMC or someplace.
Replace the metal fuel line. New filter. Rebuild fuel pump or buy new-the rubber in there will be affected by the ethanol also. And then redo the carb. Only THEN can you be sure that you won't die on the side of the road because you "just added some new gas to the tank." You can do some harm if you don't take the fuel situation seriously. Oh, and brakes should probably the first thing that you do.
I take it that you have dual range Hydramatic. Reverse position is the "Park" position.

The first thing to do is todo the brakes. The trans is the dual range (it looks like two powerglides mated together) and there isn't a "park" just N. Which looks like it means there isn't a stop and without the hand brake set it looks like it will roll. I know the saddle tank is prety rusted and the lines all need to be replaced. I was going to use and 5 gal gas can to get it running then pull the tanks and have them cleaned or if too rusted, replaced. At this point I want to see it running so I determine how far I have to go to get it on the road. The peopl that gave iti to me have kept it registeredall this time. I want to get it running so I can remove the camper and start getting the truck cleaned up. There is a ton of work that needs to be done. Once I get things seperated I can work pretty quickly on getting the truck cleaned up.

Here are a couple of threads with a variety of opinions about how to dispose of old gas. If it were me I'd check with my local hazardous waste recycler. Perhaps they have empty containers you could use, since you have so much needing disposal.

http://www.diyforums.net/old-gasoline-disposal-385808.html
http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=179536&page=2

And confirming - yes the early hydramatics had no park position. The shift pattern for many years was N Dr Lo R. The pattern was problematic, but GM left it in service for many years due to retooling cost. With a heavily laden vehicle, it was natural to downshift to low when descending a grade. When the vehicle didn't decelerate as expected (because of the heavy weight), the driver would downshift into low a second time, inadvertently shifting into reverse - occasionally causing complete loss of vehicle control. I experienced this twice as a child which scared the crap out of everyone in the car, but did not result in a crash.

Just something to consider when evaluating the cost to restore something to stock, that might better be upgraded to something more modern.

A 61 with Hydramatic is a pretty rare combo. Put the Trans in R for Park. I guess you didn't catch that earlier. Those Hydra's are pretty tough transmissions. That's why they used them in Dragsters for a long time. They require a bit of adjustment but that's what they make manuals for. I'm looking forward to seeing yours running.
"It incorporated a parking pawl when the selector was placed in reverse with the engine off, although there was no separate Park position." from Wikipedia

Really,I didn't realize there was a parking paw. Truthfully I don't know very much about this trans. The 63 that I had 30 years ago was a 4spd. When we moved the truck we had to push it in the street and then onto a flatbed trailer with a winch. We put the trans in other positions but it was on flat ground so I guess I wouldn't have noticed. The maintenance manual came with truck but I didn't look too closely at the schmatic or operation proceedure. The owners manual said things about operation but I didn't really read it I just skimmed it over. The guy who bought it new had a lot of info in the file that I got. Maintenance records, sales brouchers from all the trucks out there at the time, price quotes from all the dealers, a ton of stuff that helped him make the choice he did in buying this truck. I know that the hand brake isn't really worth too much with all that weight on it. Couldn't come close to stopping it while we were pushing it around.

I thought this truck was kind of unsual since it is a 3/4 ton with coil springs,auto, big back window, dealer installed A/C, and some other goodies. If possible I'm going to try and keep it as stock as I can. I've don the mods on the 63 and think it would be nice to see how this looked in showroom condition.

Thanks for that bit of information. I like learning something new every day, and I just did. My parents owned a 48 Olds with a Hyrdamatic for 13 years and a 52 Olds for another 2-3. They always left the cars in neutral with the hand brake on. I'm sure they never knew about the reverse locking feature.