Re: First square. 1980 GMC
 

If your battery is new, you may need to charge it up.

Re: First square. 1980 GMC
 

I'll check around and see if I know anyone with a battery charger. Should I try hooking it up to my other truck and jumping it or just find/buy a car battery charger?

Re: First square. 1980 GMC
 

So i put a new starter on. It started to do better than before, but it's still trying to burnup the ground from the negative battery cable to the back of the grille. I don't know if the starter is wired badly or something, I'm going to try to look it up. I put the wires back on as they were, but that could be wrong.

Also I heard the whining noise as it was trying to start, so i shimmed (or tried to shim) the outer bolt to bring it closer and it just seemed to do even worse. Idk if my battery is just dying or what, so I'm going to try to jump it tomorrow, I couldn't find our jumper cables anywhere.

Re: First square. 1980 GMC
 

I'm wondering of your ignition switch might be worn and there's juice jumping between contacts.
Just a thought.

Re: First square. 1980 GMC
 

Hey I'm up for checking anything and everything! just trying to learn =p

So I should check the ignition switch? What should i look for that would make it worn? I suppose I could look up where to find it and take some pics for y'all. or just replace it.

Re: First square. 1980 GMC
 

Well after doing some googling.. Maybe my negative battery cable isn't making a good connection on the alternator bracket, causing the ground wire to burn up? I noticed i forgot to put one of the bolts back into the alternator bracket(I think it goes into the block? its down at the bottom).. I'm going to try to bolt that back in and clean up the bracket where the negative cable connects and see if it still tries to burn up that wire.

Re: First square. 1980 GMC
 

Sorry about the triple post but it worked! I wire brushed the area on the alternator bracket where the negative battery cable hooks up and moved it to another hole and rebolted the bottom of it down. No more melting my body ground! And it turned over alot quicker and tried for a lot longer!

I tried throwing some gas in the carb but it didn't do much. 2 tiny splutters, more of just air.. So I guess I need to check fire/fuel/air now that it's actually trying to turn?

Re: First square. 1980 GMC
 

Just got it to fire up and run a little bit. It's smoking pretty bad out of the tail pipes haha. However.. it isn't getting fuel. It will only start/run when gas is poured into the carb. What all should I check in the fuel system?

Re: First square. 1980 GMC
 

First make sure it actually has fuel in the tank.

Do you know if it has a mechanical fuel pump? If so, I would remove the fuel line at the carb, and crank it over a few revolutions. Fuel should come spraying out of that fuel line in a pulsing manor and with a decent amount of vigor. If not, Its likely the fuel pump itself. To test that, you will need to get some fuel line/hose, and put one end on the pump, and the other in a container of gas. Now crank it over again. Within a few revolutions, fuel should come out. If not, fuel pump is bad. If fuel DOES come out while the fuel pump is sucking from a gas can/jug, then the problem is either the fuel tank selector valve, plugged fuel lines, or cracked/damaged lines in the tank.

Re: First square. 1980 GMC
 

Thank you! I'm not sure if the fuel pump is mechanical but I'll try to look up how to tell and check it out. If it is then I'll do the steps you've said.
Thanks again! Sounds simple enough to follow, really appreciate it.

Re: First square. 1980 GMC
 

Front right of the motor. down low. Looks like this.

http://www.justanswer.com/uploads/cr...003034_ja1.JPG

Re: First square. 1980 GMC
 

Yepp pretty sure that's what is there, i thought that was the fuel pump when i was looking around. I'll have to do those tests on it to see whenever i get some time this weekend. I'll report back with the results! Also, I know it's really lazy of me but where could I pick up some fuel line to use for the tests?

I'm pretty sure the truck has a blown headgasket (the previous owner told me that, and there was water in the oil bad).. but how do I tell for sure?

Re: First square. 1980 GMC
 

If the oil is a mocha color (like mine was on the 305 I pulled out of my truck), then you have water in the oil.

Re: First square. 1980 GMC
 

Yeah there is water in the oil for sure, indicating a blown head gasket correct? I'm just going off of things I have read or heard. I was fully aware that it supposedly had a blown head gasket haha just wanted to make sure before I tried to change that. Also wanted to crank it to see if it was knocking or something before I try to change the head gasket.

Would the water in the oil be something worse than a blown head gasket? I was kind of planning on rebuilding the engine but if I can get it to just run for now I'd rather do that.

Re: First square. 1980 GMC
 

Fuel line you can get at any auto parts store. Just go in and say, " i need 4 feet of 3/8" rubber fuel line please". And as Cameron said, if the oil is colored anything other than oil color, it has water in the oil. Best case, a blown head gasket. Worst case, cracked head. Even worse case, cracked block.

Re: First square. 1980 GMC
 

Ah, well I was prepared to change the head gasket, so i'll do that and I guess check the heads out too. then see if it gets water in the oil again.

Re: First square. 1980 GMC
 

Well.. Replaced the fuel pump and that seems to be working good now(I say this because my fuel line to the carb had a crack in it and it started spraying gas lol. So i replaced that and put a new filter in the carb because it was bad..

But.. I don't think the carb is getting fuel into it because i know the pump is pumping fuel into the carb line, and when we took the filter out there was gas in there.. but it isn't getting any inside the carb, or spraying any when you work the accelerator.

So I guess I need to take the carb back off and work on it again.