Noob Needs Help with TV/detent/mod/silinoid OH MY! '77 C-10 w/350 & 400

[VileZambonie]

What's your final drive ratio? It's only a 3 speed so if you have 3.73's you're going to be well over 3k cruising.

[devanray]

Drive ratio, had to look that one up. I found this and figured out what it all meant,

"To find out gear ratio without removing the cover: Jack up one rear wheel, mark the drum to backing plate with soap stone or equivilent, mark the pinion flange and housing. Turn the jacked up tire/wheel, 2 full revolutions using the marks to line up, while doing this, count the number of revolutions that the driveline makes and this will give you the ratio."

so when I follow these instructions and arrive at the ratio (i'm going to get a tach set up as well), I'll let you know the details, probably won't happen until Tuesday though.

3k is a pretty high rpm for me, so maybe all is okay, just not used to it. She should have more power though, once I get the girl tuned and the kickdown/tranny switch in, I'll see what she can do.  

Thanks again and talk with you on tuesday.

[devanray]

Okay, I've calculated that the ratio is approx 3.5, that is with the 'spinning of the drive line with the wheels up' technique (not sure if it worked really), the tach reads 2K at 40mph (around). So the RPMs don't seem to high but still for a 350 it should have more power than I am getting, and she is very noisy (could be that the hack who owned it before me welded the fan to the shaft so it spins insanely fast! This guy, I tell ya) going to replace with duel electric soon.

I've ordered the kickdown (tranny switch) for full throttle acceleration and I will be tuning (new plugs, fuel/air, idle) the engine tomorrow or Thursday, I'll also get the shifter aligned correctly.

Now... when I had put the tach in (super easy!) I had taken the HEI (?) dist cap off to plug in the tach. After which the engine had some serious issues starting, I would nearly have to flood the engine to get her to start, then it would "booh, booh, booh" (low rumble, low idle) and than kick in, once it fired up no prob. Did I do something when I took the cap off? Plug wires are in the same spot and secure, no damage to the rotor thingy, is it just a weird coincidence or can you fudge things up by taking the cap off?

If you have a sec, look at the pic and tell me what you think. Are two chokes hooked up to the carb and just the electric isn't plugged in? Where should it plug into if at all?

If I could, I'd send ya some steaks from the Kansas City Steak Company, talk about good eats, don't eat meat anymore myself, miss this stuff

By the way, my truck passed inspection today so now I can get it registered and be legal!!! (side note: we are the same age, how do you know so much?)

[HAULIN IT]

Devon, Your item in the Red circle is the elec. choke assy. It should have a One wire 12v hookup...a odd looking (big, considering it's only One wire) plastic plug. Right now your choke is closed, if it was hooked up & working properly, the front plate on top would open up pretty much straight up & down once the engine was warm...you need to get that working correctly.
 The item in the Green circle is the vacuum pull-off. To see that it is functioning correctly, take the hose off of the carb...push the flat arm part inward toward the round part & hold your thumb over the hose, now let go of the flat arm...if it stays in until you remove your thumb it is good. If it springs back out while your holding your thumb over the hose...either the hose is bad or the pull-off is. It makes the secondary air flap not open too fast (that's where the linkage is going). The pull-off should suck in slightly on start up also.
 One thing I see in your pic. that concerns me is the big vacuum port that is open on the far Right of your pic. Do you normally have a hose or plug on it? Good Luck, Lorne

[three8six]

I am pretty certain that is fuel vent, it used to run to the coal canister. Im 99% sure.

[devanray]

I think it did go to the canister as well, I felt no vacuum on it before so didn't think anything of it, I now have it capped. Thanks for pointing that out, Haulin It, I'll test the choke and the vacuum pull-off tomorrow and post results.

The automatic choke now has keyed 12volt from the old electric oil pressure harness which is also feeding keyed power to my new electric rad fan.

The fan mas made the hood noise while driving drop dramatically and the horsepower has increased by an amazing amount, I smoked the tires by accident when I took her for a test spin to the grocery store. Now I don't know if the extra horsepower is from the choke having juice or getting rid of that welded fan. I recommend this 'upgrade' to everyone, easy install, all for less than $90 bucks, more horsepower, more MPG and more room under the hood, I love it! She comes on @ 185 degrees and you can even hook up a switch to turn it on manually, I didn't get the adjustable because I would have set it at 185 degrees anyways.

Now, however, I am noticing an oil leak by the dip stick, reading other posts I think that there is too much pressure, I will test the PCV valve tomorrow. Another thing is going back to its shifting issues, it seems to shift a little better, more accurate, but it jerks a bit from 1st to 2nd. One problem fixed brings new ones to light (or just sheds more light on old ones).

Still haven't tuned her yet but that shouldn't have anything to do with the jerky shifting.

So, are 2K RPM @ 40MPH (third gear) and 700 RPM at idle good numbers?

Thanks again everyone, I can't believe how much I've learned over just the past few days from everyone here (and how much I've saved in mechanic bills!). I always want to repay so I try to give my 2 cents in other posts and by tomorrow night you should see that I have payed my dues ("member") to this site, but just know its my way of saying thank you to all of you, especially Vile, who takes his time to help as many people as he can, from problem to resolution and who has helped me so much thus far.

Whooo, I think I've had to much wine....  

[devanray]

Issue has been resolved, subject line no longer relates to issues -- PLEASE DELETE POST

[Captkaos]

We don't delete posts, just start another one.