New Here, Pics Included

[amr952]

Hello everyone, my name is Andrew I am from Farmville, VA.  I am joining this forum to seek some help along the way of restoring my truck and to hopefully help some others along the way.

Anyways, to the good stuff.  I have a 1973 Chevrolet C-10 with the 350 in it, it is a 3 speed manual.  As far as I can tell so far it is completely stock except for the shifter is in the floor. I am the second owner of this truck, my grandfather owned it before and said he got sick of seeing it sit in his yard so he gave it to me. I dont not know which 3 speed is in it, nor do I know the rear end gearing but I will try to find that stuff out tommorow. It has the rust in the usual places, but other than that its in pretty good shape.

I really love this truck, I got it about 2 weeks ago and have been driving it since the first day.  I finally had to park it because the clutch just had nothing left for me. I am in the process of putting a new one on right now. It works pretty good, it has a few problems which I hope to address with your help.  It will start up great warm and hot, but it just does not idle very well and while driving it will miss.  I am sure it is probably the timing, the stock q-jet carb, and/or the distributor. I do not have a timing light right now so I will have to pick one up to check that.

My plans are do get it running pretty reliably so I can drive it for a year while my garage is being built. Right now I am just laying on the ground to work which is a pain. So what I want to do right now is some motor work to get it running good, and do some body work to keep the rust from spreading. After I get the garage, I would like to do a complete Frame-off restoration but that will have to wait.  Anyways sorry for this being so long, I just hate when ppl just join a forum and start asking questions.  I just want you to know who I am then I will ask questions. :b  

Now to the better stuff.

Edited by: amr952 at: 6/29/06 8:26 pm

[amr952]

Sorry for the huge pics, I will try and resize them.

[Lt.Del]

Hey neighbor! Richmond here, well, Henrico. Nice name, Andrew.  That is my son's name, my name, my uncle's name, my grandfather's name, my great grandfathers' name. 5th generation now.

Any hoot, while you have the tansmission dropped for the clutch, get a new pressure plate, throw out bearing and ensure the flywheel is smooth, if not, turn it.

As for the miss problem, check your points, wires, plugs.  If you dont know how old those things are, replace them so you wont have to in two months anyhow. Chances are, that will take care of your miss.  If not, it may be in  your carb.  Heck, I would drop in an HEI distributor, they came in your style truck a few years after yours-i believe.
 
 

SgtDel
aka "Andy"

www.delbridge.net

1979 Big 10 383 stroker
1991 Blu 'Burb 3/4 ton 4x4

[amr952]

Thanks for the reply, and great welcome. That is cool you live close, I can come over and get free labor jk.  

You have like read my mind.  On the clutch I have the whole clutch kit no point in doing it unlness you do it right. I am planning on changing over to HEI also. Is their a huge difference in and MSD one and others.  I found this one on some forums and obviously on ebay.  Distributor.  I read the whole page and found no catches and it comes with a 3 year warranty, what do you think?

Thanks for the responses.

[Lt.Del]

Looks like a winner to me.  they have 99.9 percent feedback, cant go wrong.  That seems like the one for you. simply hook the red battery wire to the positive.  
I simply use the stock hei for my 79...you can get loads of them from the salvage yards for 20 ea.  Dont forget to put the distr. gasket in place prior to dropping her in there.

If you are at a salvage yard, might as well clip the wires that lead to the dist. on the donor car so you have the right harness clip for the red wire that clips into the hei.

Farmville, prince edward county,va. the last county in the nation to follow the brown vs. board of education...separate is not equal supreme court case--overturning plessey vs. fergusson.The last hold out for integration. A little history never hurts anyone.

SgtDel
aka "Andy"

www.delbridge.net

1979 Big 10 383 stroker
1991 Blu 'Burb 3/4 ton 4x4

Edited by: SgtDel  at: 6/30/06 12:55 am

[Blazin]

Welcome from New Hampshire

[amr952]

Well I have everything off, just finished a little while ago. But now I have a problem.  

Like I said above, I have been driving it for the past 2 weeks but I just parked it recetly because the clutch was finished.  Anyways, I went to start it up a little while ago and I heard a very odd noise. I will try my best to explain it.

It sounds like tapping a hammer against metal. It seems kind of high in the motor and a little more to the passenger side of it. It almost sounds like it is kind of under the distributor but a little to the left.  I am not really sure what is going on but all I did was remove the transmission, bellhousing and clutch. If you have any ideas please throw them my way. I was going to try and maybe record the sound with my camera tommorow and see how it comes out.

Thanks for the help in advance.

[Blazin]

" Well I have everything off, just finished a little while ago. But now I have a problem. "

I might be missunderstanding, but it sounds like you took the bellhousing off and then started the engine?
You shouldn't even have the battery hooked up when you are working on it, nuch less running it. Did you suport the engine in the back so it didn't fall down and lean on the distributor cap? If not the I woiuld say your niose is the rotor hitting the cap.

[amr952]

Well while I was taking the trans. and Bellhousing off, I had the battery unhooked. After I was finished I hooked it back up and just started it up, I did not realize that it would cause a problem.

I guess that was a stupid mistake. I did not realize that the back of the motor would fall enough to put pressure on the distributor like that. Well thanks for the help and sorry for the very dumb question.

I feel like a real idiot.  Again thanks, I will put the trans and stuff back in and I am sure it will go away.

[Blazin]

Check the cap it will most likely be at the very least cracked.
Tail light look like 60s vintage on there.

Edited by: Blazin at: 6/30/06 10:19 pm

[amr952]

Yeah hopefully that is the only problem, I was going to replace it anyways with that HEI, I will probably order the HEI and an Edelbrock 600cfm 1406 I beleive it was on monday. Yeah I am not sure about the tail-lights, I guess I was going to order the correct ones from a distributor somewhere. He told me that they just stopped working, so he re-wired the whole lighting system and I guess just put whatever lights he could find on it. Thanks for the help.

All that is on my truck that has to do with pollution control is that A.I.R Pump thing, does that mean that the Edelbrock 1406 will not be legal, because it says that it is not on pollution controlled vehicles.  I just was not sure if that A.I.R pump technically made it a pollution controlled vehicle.  We have to pass state inspection here so I have to have it correct.

Again thanks for the help. Sorry for the dumb questions.

[amr952]

Also, after I get this new distributor and new carb, I was obviously going to change all the plugs and wires.  Since the HEI distributor puts out much more voltage then the stock points system did, do I need to get a differnent temperature/gapped plugs, or just leave the temp. and the gap the same.

[yellow76]

Welcome Andrew
If this worked right, you can see how my 76 tail lights used to look. The round lights with the small clear backups were factory for a while. Just dont see many around anymore.
Nice to see another Stepsider.

76 stepside 2wd
GMPP 350/350
basicly a big money pit, but a lot of fun.

[Blazin]

Both my 64 & 66 step sides had those lights, but never seen them on a newer truck. I was going to say leave them on anyway they look cool. I
I spaced that you have points. If you had an HEI the cap would be broke garenteed.  

[ChevyGuy]

Sounds like the the throwout bearing wasnt installed right. You gotta make sure the throwout bearing is in the fork when you put the bellhousing on and use the aligning tool before you tighten the bolts.