[ncpetersc]

TO DO:

LUBRICATION - I still have not located the grease fitting for the bearing, but went on the hunt for the differential fill plug first. Did some more reading yesterday, and it sounds like it is on the front of the pumpkin, I had looked for it in the rear/cover area. This shouldn't be a problem to do once I find it.

I have a question about what is "normal" in this area. It may have been decades since anyone bothered to check it, but I used my largest chisel as a scraper to remove some guck from the axel. What I am moving is like industrial bubble gum, so clearly a grease/oil component to it. I wish I took pictures, but it was probably 4-5mm thick and extended a good 12-18" out on the axel tubes. Is this typical, or leaking badly? Also, should it be low (likely), I'm reading 80W90 is probably the right stuff?

What will be the right stuff for the grease fitting for the "slip joint"? Some sort of chassis lube or?

TUNING - After getting the new carb on and the changing the oil, I didn't want to touch anything for a few days, just so I could drive the truck a few times. But I did eventually want to try to "tune" it properly for fuel efficiency or just correctness.

I tried to start looking at this yesterday and didn't get very far. I wanted to start by recording where things were set currently. I checked how many turns the idle mixture screws were set to, and found them to be about 3.5 turns out. I have read quite a few times that 1.5 turns is a typical starting point for these. How excessive is 3.5? That's how it came from the carb house.

Started it up, and verified still at 12* advance (vac disconnected), RPM was 850. Vac: 18"

The manual says 8* and 600 for 350/auto.

Anyway, I started with a small change, and adjusted idle to 750rpm. I actually had to adjust my idle stop solenoid in for this. But I also don't think this solenoid is functioning. Shouldn't it be extended at idle? Or did this actually only extend if AC was running? I'm not sure I have ever seen it extended. Anyway... 750 rpm, still 12deg so the higher rpm did not add mechanical advance or anything.

Now, I've read about tuning for "max vacuum", so that is what I was going to try.

First I went 1/2 turn in on idle screws, figuring 3.5 was a lot so leaner was the right way to go, then readjusted to 750 rpm.

Then I try another 1/2 turn in. I hear something. When people talk about "pinging" I confess to not knowing what that is. But what I heard might be a slight "ping", would this make sense? Pinging due to leaner mixture?

Anyway, I figured I didn't know what I was doing again, backed 1/2 turns back out, left it at 750rpm, vacuum might have increased to 19".

What do you guys think?