73-87chevytrucks.com
73-87 Chevy _ GMC Trucks => Engine/Drivetrain => Topic started by: 79brent on May 08, 2013, 12:58:59 am
-
Ok so my 1979 350/350 c10 wont rev past 2k all of the sudden. The trans or tc went out on the way home from work one day and wouldn't rev without dying. I swapped the trans out and still wont rev up? I need help fast on this one. This is my daily driver and need it back on the road! Thankyou.
-
Did you also swap the torque convertor? Sounds like a timing issue otherwise,........ distributor possibly. Do you have an HEI?
-
Yes, I swapped the torque converter. Thanks for the fast reply I appreciate it. It does have an hei distributor, I checked all the spark plug wires last night and they were on good. I dont have a timing light, ill see if my uncle can check that for me sometime this week.
-
i think it has to do with the distributor... maybe the module... weŽll see what others might suggest..
-
The cap, rotor, module and coil are only about 7 months old. Could it be the distributor shaft? Because that is original.. ???
-
naw i dont think it could be the shaft...could check the vacuum advance mechanism including the hose, and open up the distributor.. check the weights and the springs see if everything looks normal in there... by the way is your truck carb or tbi?
-
Ill check all the lines when I get off of work. Its got a rochester carb on it.
-
when you rev it, is it a slow rev; like it has to catch up to itself after you push in the gas peddle? what happens when it dies? just like flat out dies, sputters?
-Nic
-
Yeah it's really slow and it sputters for a little then dies. Seems to idle just fine. Weird, motor is only 2 years old, same with carb and exhaust.
-
check your choke, i bet thats your problem
-
what do you think could be wrong with the electric choke? sticking maybe? I am gettng kinda tired of these rochester carbs. I want to get the holley 600. ???
-
Nothing wrong with the quadrajet, they are good carbs. I would check your weights and springs in the distributor as gildardo suggested. If it idles fine, but unable to advance sounds more like the situation. The weights have to move freely.
-
Alright sounds good guys. Thanks for the advice, ill check it out within the next hour and see if I can figure it out. Will keep you posted. Keep on truckin! 8)
-
Ok I pulled the cap off and everything seems to be working fine with the distributor. I tried to get a jumpstart and realized that I kept losing juice instead of getting it. Crawled under the truck and the starter solenoid was missing a nut and bolt that connects it to the case? How does this happen and could it be causing my problem with not revving up? Regardless im gonna get it replaced, cheap autozone starter anyways, also gonna get the good battery cables to replace the autozone ones. Thoughts and comments? ???
-
well, if you checked the distributor and everything seemed ok we can scratch that off our list... did you check the vacuum lines... and the vacuum advance canister? if everything is ok with the ignition then we can check the fuel issues... when you rev it and it shuts off do you sell raw or overly rich mixture of gasoline? when the engine is warm does it still idle or does it also shut off... quadrajets are good carbs... have to keep them clean though... speaking of clean.. are your fuel filters clean.. including the little filter inside the carb...
-
Vacuum lines are all connected and have good/non cracked connections, checked that when I pulled the air cleaner off to mess with the distributor. Fuel filter shouldn't be dirty because its only a few months old but was gonna check it today anyways. Fuel pump is almost 2 years old so it should be fine as well. Im thinking it could just be that solenoid grounding out from being lose.
-
could you of let the distributor cap hit the fire wall when you changed the trans?
-
I don't think it did, its not broken or anything. It was running like that before my transmission got swapped out as well. The only thing that is out of the ordinary is that starter. Was running perfect one day, then later that day I was stuck going 25 mph because it would'nt rev past 2k. if you go over 2k the rpms will drop and it will die. Another time when I started it and revved it, it went to 2k the sputtered erratically then died. I don't know but im sick of it as you can imagine lol.
-
It has to be timing or ignition. The module may be bad even though its not very old........what brand is it? Made in China?
-
Lol I couldn't tell you where it was made, had a shop put in the cap, rotor, module. Long story short module went out before, was the only piece of the dist top that I did not test with my old dist top stuff, so did not figure it out. However I will swap it out with my old one later on after work. I know the old one works to. You guys dont think that the starter solenoid missing screws and bouncing around under the truck could cause any of these problems? I know its keeping me from building charge back up in my battery. Thanks.
-
the starter has nothing to do with the rpms... the only thing its good for is to crank the engine.. think top fuel dragsters they donŽt even have starters.. they use hand held removable starter at the supercharger pulley... try the module.. thats the first thing that came to my mind... but since you said you recently changed it i didnŽt think much more about it... by the way dont buy a new starter just because its missing a bolt... if its cranking fine just replace/install the nut and bolt... youŽll just be spending money for no reason.. what do you mean by... keeping me from building charge back up in my battery?
-
I know it has nothing to do with rpm, it will however suck power from your battery if something is broken in there from floating around, so to speak. We had jumper cables hooked to my truck yesterday and at first it was charging, tried to start it a couple times, then the volts went all the way down. My brother was saying the other day that there were sparks coming from the starter while I was trying to start it to. I am beginning to hate those stupid ignition modules. lol
-
also just because something is "new" doesnt mean it cant be bad. when i worked at autozone i cant even count how many times parts came back bad
-
yeah I know that. The module that went out on me before didn't last very long either. Lol owell hopefully that is the problem so I can get rolling!
-
I know it has nothing to do with rpm, it will however suck power from your battery if something is broken in there from floating around, so to speak. We had jumper cables hooked to my truck yesterday and at first it was charging, tried to start it a couple times, then the volts went all the way down. My brother was saying the other day that there were sparks coming from the starter while I was trying to start it to. I am beginning to hate those stupid ignition modules. lol
woah.. seems like you have more problems with the starter than just a missing bolt... consider a rebuilt ac delco starter, personally never had a problem with them...
-
does it do this no matter if the engine is cold or hot?
-
Yeah its just a cheap starter lol yeah doesnt matter if it is hot or cold
-
nopt sur eif i missed it before but hows the idle? and power up to 2k?
-
also will it rev past 2k in park or neutral
-
Idle is fine unless I give it lot of gas and let it back down. Like it is not burning the right amount of fuel and flooding. No sir, no better in park or neutral. That is how it runs no matter what, however, it is a little worse under load. No time to tinker today. Almost the end of the week and im beat.
-
To me sounds like its fluid related. If you have a clear fuel filter you can see if it is getting enough gas. 2 year old pump doesn't mean much with ethonal in todays gas.... Had a pump go out after like 4 or so months. My first start the Trans fluid was so low I thought I fried the trusty th350. also gave me the same issues. Could be something clogged in the jets or needle and seat. Just my 2 cents
-
Ill give that filter a look 454man. I just have the filter in the carb. Im thinking about just running the clear one and taking the other one out of the carb. I might as well check the pump to while I have the fuel line off. Ill keep you guys posted if I run into anymore problems or if I fix it.
-
are you stating you only have the little filter inside the carb to filter the fuel going to it... what happen to the larger filter before it gets to the carb... i recommend keeping both filters... and you can use the clear one that way when you see it dirty youŽll be able to change it on time... and the one in the carb you can change that one every oil change or something... having a clogged fuel filter shortens fuel pumps life, and hurts drastically engine performance and mpg...
-
Yeah the truck is all original and that is how they come from the factory. The fuel line is supposed to be all steel line running to the carb. I accidentally twisted it one time so now it has enough rubber line to fit a clear one on.
-
Here is the setup I have. Check out my YouTube vid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dRPPWuNAJI&feature=youtube_gdata_player
-
Nice lookin motor 8). I cant run that setup though because of all the smog hoses on my motor. I was gonna run it almost where the fuel goes in the carb. That is the only rubber I have on my fuel line. Probably only about 8" of rubber line. I read somewhere that those in-carb filters suck for performance and obviously changability if that is a word lol.
-
What sucks for performance odd that 1406 , tookit off traded for aq jet. All you need is 8 in max
-
Thanks!:-)
-
I heard the in carb filters on the q-jet don't flow very well, that's why I was thinking about just running the clear one. Yeah the 8" should be fine even though it is around a bend. No problem!
-
Flow Idk, but i'm sure it was fine with gas flow b4 the ethonal disaster... My filter was just like 5 bucks. The rubber house was ethocrap rated... It works just great for me and my 350
-
theres no problem with running two filters. i would keep two, but yeah im kind of leaning to fuel also. its a cheap part and who knows when it was changed last
-
Fuel filter is clean as a whistle! It is getting fuel as well. I switched out the module, but accidentally mis put one of the wires back on so it ran erratically. Ran out of light this afternoon so I will fix all the wires tomorrow and see how she runs! Kinda pisses me off though at how cheap that distributor cap and rotor is that they put on at the shop! It has to be chinese because I have never felt plastic that cheap on those parts, but to top it all off it doesn't even have brass terminals. They are cheapy chrome-looking plated. I will never take my truck to a shop again. I could've got better quality off ebay for $20. Plan on fixing that when I get the money. Dropped my starter off though and gave it a new bolt for the solenoid, seems to hold charge and not spark anymore. Lasted me pretty long for a "valucraft" starter ha.
-
so you dont know if it fixed your problem or not? had filters look good and let fuel threw just not enough for a high demand.
-
No, because I took 3 wires off to move the distributor cap farther from the bottom and mixed up two wires lol. That other module I took off had so much white grease stuff on it, it was ridiculous, assuming it was di-electric grease.Don't see why something would ever need that much.
-
Totally screwed up the plug wires! >:( any advice on that?
-
(http://ww2.justanswer.com/uploads/Bugfuel/2009-09-23_092844_Chevy350firing.jpg)
-
I know all the numbers on the motor and the clockwise dist. Just don't know where the wires go :o
-
well turn your engine over until top dead center... witch ever distributor rotor thing is pointing at then thats your number one piston firing order... start from there...
-
Remove the distributor cap and #1 spark plug. As Gildardo stated, rotating the engine clockwise, bring the #1 cylinder to TDC compression and align the timing marks on the balancer exactly to zero. The terminal at which the distributor rotor points is #1. Connect the spark plug wires accordingly. Take the time to apply a dab of white or yellow paint to mark the #1 cylinder on the cap for future reference.
While you have the distributor cap off take the opportunity to check one more thing. Before you fasten the cap back down, watch the distributor rotor and slowly rotate the engine counterclockwise. STOP as soon as the rotor just begins to move! Look at the timing marks and post the reading.
-
the wires attach to the distributor cap and spark plugs lol j/k
if you didnt remove the distributor you shouldn't have to find tdc.
another image
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v206/Triple3Rydah/firingorder.jpg)
this should help a little more
-
An easy way to tell if you are on the compression stroke of the #1 cylinder. Remove the spark plug place your thumb over the hole and when you feel air being pushed out you know you are coming up on the compression stroke,......then stop at the 0 mark on the balancer.
-
I didn't remove the distributor so is 1 the 1 after the little tongue where you put in the wires like the tach etc? If that doesn't work ill try lining it up to tdc. Do you crank it by hand?
-
Number 1 could be anywhere, it just depends where it was set up initially. Its easier to set to 0 by cranking it by hand. You can bump it over with the starter until you get close and then finish by hand.
-
I'm reading this saying wth ??
So your truck won't accelerate is what I'm gathering under load correct? And because of this you replaced your transmission and torque converter ??? and now you're going to replace the starter ? :o
Totally confused here -
If your problem is acceleration under load you need to check fuel delivery and ensure your exhaust is not restricted.
-
The transmission was making all kinds of noise and slipping. Fuel delivery is fine and the exhaust is 2 years old with high flow cat and flowmaster. It does this in park and neutral as well. so when the mark on the harmonic balancer is on the 0 mark its at tdc?
-
It all started when I was going to work one morning. I was going up this big hill cruising, no overheating or anything else out of the norm, when it started to deaccelerate out of nowhere. So I left off on the gas and it slammed back into gear. Made it fine the rest of the way with a few shifting problems. The way back if you revved it past 2k you would hear a zing and nothing would happen. Felt like the transmission was slipping like heck and my max speed was about 25 and to get it to go into second you would have to let off the gas. It died one time and barely started back up kinda backfired a bit. Then it was like that since then.
-
I'm reading this saying wth ??
So your truck won't accelerate is what I'm gathering under load correct? And because of this you replaced your transmission and torque converter ??? and now you're going to replace the starter ? :o
Totally confused here -
If your problem is acceleration under load you need to check fuel delivery and ensure your exhaust is not restricted.
once upon a time i had a dodge pick up.. yes a dodge... anyways at high speed or uphill there was no power whats so ever... check everything, until i thought about the exhaust... turned out to be a clogged up cat converter... isnŽt that something...
-
Ok so I fixed the spark plug wire dilemma, got it running but the module did not fix the problem. I was revving it up under the hood with the air cleaner off and when you rev it up the carb makes like a vvvv sound when it stops revving at 2k. not the sound of it sucking air though. Truck idles like a dream, totally smooth, no misfiring. this is weird.
-
You sure you are getting enough fuel?
-
Should I try blowing out the fuel filter with the air compressor or just wait to buy a new one? I don't have the money right now to go up and buy one, I know they are cheap. I would bypass the filter (take it off) but don't wanna take a chance on something getting into the float bowl or jets (if there isn't already something in there). dang this California weather, feels like im in the sun outside ha. I appreciate all the help and ideas from you guys. I don't know much about motor internals/diagnostics, just know how to do tune ups and most everything else. ::)
-
Replace the fuel filter and if that doesn't solve it I would start by disconnect the exhaust pipe to rule out a clogged cat.
-
fuel filter is new now, forgot I had money on my autozone card, timing is not the issue either. I set it back and advanced it, no difference. I can see gas spitting out as I rev it up because the motor isn't using it. Next stop will be to unbolt the exhaust crossmember, but I doubt that is the problem.
-
It could be centrifugal advance. The centrifugal advance should be 20* more, and should all come in around 2000 rpm. If it doesn't come in -- the timing does not advance -- you will run out of power above 2000 rpm, because the spark just isn't getting there in time.
To check it is easy. Remove the vacuum advance hose and plug the vacuum leak at the carb. Put the timing light on the engine and check the timing at idle. Should be 12*-16* or so. Now speed the engine up to 2000, 3000 if you can. Does the timing change to 20* more than it was at idle? If not, the centrifugal advance mechanism is broken.
I know you said you checked the springs and all, but an operational check is best.
-
Ok so I unbolted the exhaust crossmember and guess what? The 2 year old cat IS in fact plugged. Thanks again for the help I wouldn't of figured that out on my own. You guys are awesome!
-
Excellent! So, did you replace/unclog it, and did that fix the problem?
-
How do you know its plugged?
-
wow i cant believe clogged cat converters are more common than i thought...
-
Because it wont rev with the exhaust hooked up but runs perfect with it off. I took it for a little test drive, felt complaining. How would you go about unclogging it? I was thinking about ripping the guts out because I don't gotta get smogged for 2 years 8)
-
Because it wont rev with the exhaust hooked up but runs perfect with it off. I took it for a little test drive, felt complaining. How would you go about unclogging it? I was thinking about ripping the guts out because I don't gotta get smogged for 2 years 8)
i dont think its such a bad idea... it buys you time and money for 2 years and its free.... forget green peace... lol
-
Yeah and ill have the money by then to get the x pipe off this site and buy to high flow cats for it and run it like that, probably get some headers to 8)
-
You can get a long pice of round steel about and 1/8 inch thick, bend a "L" shape on the end so its fits into the pipe opening. Chuck it into a drill and bore out all the material, or at least enough to have flow.
-
I was just thinking about pulling half off by bending back the flaps that hold the 2 pieces together and ripping it all out. :o