Post about my GMC "making it"
 

The plan was to drive it from las cruces to Ruidoso Nm but instead its 5 miles out of town on the side of some road. Completely irritating day, im sun burnt and sore and completely defeated.

I spent about 5 hours trying to figure out why it would start and run sometimes and all of a sudden have no spark. My dad is so incredibly good at troubleshooting he told me over the phone to check the middle ground prong in the coil. I was thinking it was the spark control module and trying to bypass it.

I had it on the road, drove it to the gas station and filled it up, while pulling out it died, along with the new battery. My friend helped me pullstart it and it started just as the rope snapped and ran good, i was getting confused.

It was running good enough i decided to try and leave town, right in front of a parts store it started starving for fuel. I pulled into the store and bought a new fuel pump and installed it in the parking lott. The truck ran great so i took off on the highway and made it 5 miles until i had absolutely no power at all, even in first with wide open throttle it would not move. I pulled over and could hear at least 2 dead cylinders, for some reason it leaned out bad i guess. Im super pissed, i've done alot of work to this truck and spent a good deal of money and now its sitting on the side of some road somewhere.

Is anyone else ready to drop a pineapple grenade into their truck and walk away?

Re: Post about my GMC "making it"
 

i feel your pain, i have a 98 ranger thats my daily driver and that truck has a dictionary thick pile of paperwork and receipts from repairs done to it that the previous owner gave us when i bought the truck. but there are also other problems like 3rd gear grinding when up/downshifting once the tranny gets warmed up, barley able to see my speedo when goin under 50 and cant even see the tach, and within a one week period the alternator went out, the oil gasket blew, and the front brakes almost grinded down to nothing. so i know your pain

Re: Post about my GMC "making it"
 

Some of us told you drive it around a bit. Sorry to sound like a smartass.At least it was 5 miles and not 105 miles! What are your plans? How does it run at an idle?

Re: Post about my GMC "making it"
 

Also had mine go 5 miles away from my house. The rod bearings went out on me and left me stranded. Stupid me forgot my phone, I was taking the truck out after it got a fresh oil change! still dont know why it went like it did. Anywho I walked 5 miles home and had the neighbor tow the truck home. Pulled the oil pan decided I didnt have the money or the tools to get the job done so I sold it! :whine: The good part sold it for $100 more than I paid :metal:

Re: Post about my GMC "making it"
 

it will get better in time or just buy a ford.

Re: Post about my GMC "making it"
 

Yes i should have driven it around town more, i was kinda holding my family up and decided as soon as it seems okay im going for it. I should have left it at my buddys house where i picked it up from.

The only plan i came up with is... It had a towbar my uncle installed, (probably because it left him on foot enough times) I took it off and gave it to my buddy for his jeep. Im going to barrow a 3/4 dodge and call my friend to see if i can use my old tow bar to drag this truck up here to ruidoso, (assuming its there tomorrow).

Once its here im not screwing around anymore, my dad informed me he had an extra set of 305 heads so i will switch them out. Im not sure if my carb leaned out and burned valves but just to be safe im going to buy a new quadrajet.

The idle was good, it did not rev up like it had a vacuum leak, it was rough but thats probibly because it had a dead cylinder. The carburetor acted fine the whole time i drove around town.

Re: Post about my GMC "making it"
 

That sounds like a lot of work and money to be throwing at it when it could be a simple dizzy or spark wire / plug or something easy. But maybe you have checked that already. Sorry to hear about your troubles, good luck!

Re: Post about my GMC "making it"
 

i can't help with the tow to ruidoso, but i live in cruces and would be glad to help out if i can.

Re: Post about my GMC "making it"
 

I agree. If you haven't already, get it home a let it sit for a bit, and clear your head. Then jump in and start with the very basics first.

Interesting. So you take off and it dies, and the new battery is dead. Thinking out loud here.... if the alternator is bad, it can't charge the battery. The engine can run with no alternator, just with good battery. But when the battery goes dead, all bets are off.

I would start off by having the alternator tested.

If you can get a hold of a know good distributor and coil, try swapping them out for a while.

Check all the spark plugs for color, and for cracks. Check all the wires for any burnt spots and bad boots/terminals.

Fuel filter?

Before pulling the heads off, pull the rocker covers and have someone turn the engine over. Check that all the rocker arms are moving. One or two that aren't moving or barely moving points to a flat cam lobe or even a bent push rod.

Re: Post about my GMC "making it"
 

with the Symptoms hes describing i think we have a winner

Re: Post about my GMC "making it"
 

Once i get it up here i will test the alternator, at the end of this trip the battery had plenty of juice with all the driving i did with it so im not sure if thats the problem.

I put new plugs, wires, distributor cap and rotor in it a couple months ago. Im going to put my dads compression tester on it before i tear everything apart, it would be awesome if it was something simple.

When i first started working on this truck my friend stuck a battery in this truck that had been sitting for 15 and poured some gasoline down the carb, it started but the old gas coated everything with incredibly sticky tarnish, It completely gummed up the carb until now fuel would leave the bowl. Im fairly sure we made a valve stick and a piston smacked it bending it a little bit, with a little gap and the hot exhaust escaping past the gap it burnt the seat. It sounded like it had a dead cylinder since the beginning and maybe yesterday the strain i put on it was what finished off the valve.

Re: Post about my GMC "making it"
 

Thanks for offering dude, I might need someone to watch my back while i put my towbar on, Apparently there is a group of guys lighting peoples legs on fire on highway 70.

Re: Post about my GMC "making it"
 

Check the fuel filter that is inside the carb fuel inlet too. They get clogged up easy. Just unscrew the inlet fitting and the filter pulls right out.

Jim P

Re: Post about my GMC "making it"
 

I talked to my dad on the phone this morning and he said the same thing. I had so much nasty crap coming out of the tank i installed a clear filter before the carb. I changed out the clear filter before leaving town but i did not check the one in the carburetor.

Re: Post about my GMC "making it"
 

Im so damn happy right now i still have a truck, I left it on the side of a road with little traffic and no houses close by, (outskirts of town). To add to my worries i forgot to take the OPEN title out of the glovebox. I was expecting some punks to throw a rock through the new wind shield i just put in or at least steal the gas can out of the bed. Im sure the only reason i still have this truck is its so damn ugly.
I think the truck went faster up a hill than it ever has before since it was connected to a brand new F-250 power stroke! Im kind of regretting giving away the tow-bar for it now, very handy device.

In the morning the real fun starts....

Re: Post about my GMC "making it"
 

Do you by chance have a points use distributor?? If so, sounds like the points wore out. A quick re-calibration of the dwell might do the trick. Your symtoms sound very similar to what happened to my '67 Stang on the way to El Paso. I was 300 miles from home but was able to fix it on the side of the road. Thank God!!

-E

Re: Post about my GMC "making it"
 

Its an 85 i don't think it has points, I will pull off the cap and check though.

Re: Post about my GMC "making it"
 

If its an 85 its an hei. The chances of you bending a valve are about 0. Your either having an ignition issue or clogged fuel system. The esc box on the firewall is well known for causing problems. It can be bypassed. If you know for sure you have a bunch of trash in the fuel system you need to either drop the tank and clean it out or keep constantly replacing filters.

Re: Post about my GMC "making it"
 

Alright i got an update, I was outside messing with it for a while. Its backfiring and shooting a flame out of the carb. When i throttle up it takes a few seconds to idle back down. When i stomp on the gas it hesitates getting rpm's up. anyone want to guess what it could be?

Re: Post about my GMC "making it"
 

Ignition or timing being off. The esc module can change the timing and thats its job. It can also cause the truck to shut off and stop runnning when its malfunctioning. Check the timing with a light and see if its jumping around. Also double check the fuel filters and make sure they arent clogged.

Re: Post about my GMC "making it"
 

Dude this sucks, i dont even have a timing light here. I never messed with the ignition. If i hold the throttle about half way i can start hearing a miss, i let off and floor it and it just pops and shoots flames out of the carb. Could a lean carb be causing this?

Re: Post about my GMC "making it"
 

yes but so can timing. Check the fuel filters first because thats easiest. Then get ahold of a timing light and see where the timing is.

Re: Post about my GMC "making it"
 

I replaced my external filter 2 days ago, its still clear, i just removed the internal one. I will try and locate a timing light asap. I just checked to make sure my plug wires were on correctly.

Re: Post about my GMC "making it"
 

It's not going to be a crossed wire if your truck was running just fine before. It's also making me think it's not carburator related for the same reason. Something had to have failed in order for it to suddenly start running like crap. Maybe something to do with the advance on the distributor, maybe that timing module that Cableguy is talking about.

-E

Re: Post about my GMC "making it"
 

pickup coil in the distributor?