The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts The Stovebolt Volunteer Fire Department Tanker 51 ... BACK IN SERVICE!!

After nearly two years of fighting the original distributor, today I finally got the newly rebuilt HEI distributor (Pertronix Kit) installed and the truck successfully started (Hambone at the key, me in the engine compartment).

So, thanks to all of you who have been encouraging me through all of this. The truck runs again!!! There was a very cold Detroit 6-71 parked in front of it or we would have taken a road test. That will have to wait until the Green Leaker thaws out

Thanks for the support

John

darn glad to hear this John. Maybe some trees can be saved!

Fill up the tank, wait for a cold-spell, then go spray down a hillside. Put some hay bails alongside, then hop on your toboggan and enjoy your very own luge course! Local Winter Olympics! It'll be HUGE!!! You can retire!!!



-Michael

John, curious about the distributor. Did it have a spark advance? Our truck seems to have the govenor tied from carb to distributor and there is no spark advance. It is very sluggish until it is hot then hard to start sometimes.
Congrats on getting the old girl running again.

Cannonball,

It has a vacuum spark advance that is hooked to the governor. It *is* sluggish and wants to miss/cough a little when the throttle is pressed. Also, it sounds rough at low idle, but smooths out as the revs come up. I doubt I have the timing close yet (close enought o run, though). Also, I may not have the distributor set in just right, yet. It seems to be close to time with the vacuum advance in about the 6 oclock position (towards the carb). I thought before, it was in the 9 oclock position.

John

It *is* sluggish and wants to miss/cough a little when the throttle is pressed. Also, it sounds rough at low idle, but smooths out as the revs come up.


Thanks John, I suppose these problems are not limited to the V6 engine. Ours does the same thing.

John and Cannonball,

Have you guys checked your mechanical spark advance to see if it's working?

I had problems with my truck running poor and found the weights rusted to the plate due to moisture condensating inside the dist cap. Took things apart, cleaned everything up and sprayed some teflon lube on things and all is well.

A quick check is to start the engine with your timing light hooked up and rev the engine and see if the timing mark advances as the speed goes up and then returns when you drop back to idle.


Mike B

Mike,

Good point. I checked it with the little vacuum pump thingy (I forget what it's called, but it's for bleeding the brake lines, etc) before I reinstalled the distributor but have not checked it on the truck.

Also, could it be bad gas?? That gas is nearly a year old ...

Thanks,
John

The bad gas certainly wouldn't help. Not sure if that's your entire problem, but could certainly be contributing to it.

Thanks Mike, I never thought of that! If the advance is not working, it would be quick to see! Thanks again!

Update

Tanker 51 pumped at Homecoming!

Here's Tanker 51 running a booster line Mike B's truck is right behind Tanker 51, and that's Mike B showing our neighbor's son how to handle the line. I'm running the pump.

The cool thing that happened -- after filling the tank (1,000 gallons) for the first time in about two years, the tank gauge started working again!! (I thought it had rusted together 3 years ago).

congrats John. When the stars line up the Stovebolt gods can and do shine on us..... sometimes!!

Drives nicely as well.

Update ,,,

As Hambone so astutely noted, the truck had power issues ... no more! After Jimmy Quade suggested I take out the plugs and check for fouling (he thought one or two might be fouled), this morning I removed all six. ALL were incredibly fouled. Yikes! 6 new Autolite double platnums later (to go with the Pertronix HEI upgrade), the truck runs like it's on afterburner. Wow!

What a difference a set of plugs can make.

And the kid at Autozone who sold me the plugs this morning impressed me -- he seemed, for a teenager, pretty knowledgeable about such stuff. When I told him about the Pertronix, Flamethrower coil and everything else, he suggested I open the gap to .040 versus the recommended .035 to make the plugs fire hotter. Well, it seems to be working like a champ. Just a short test drive over to Milt's a bit ago was breathtaking. I didn't even have to split shift.

Happy boy!

JM

Thats great!
So are you drive it here tomorrow for the big picnic?

Great to hear it is running Top Notch.
Even better to hear that younger people are into old cars and trucks!

john, fill it up with water then drive over to the picnic and see if you need to split the shifts.
good job