86k10 4spd man-Carburetor Trouble - Cold Starting, stalling on takeoff, accel. delay

[WDE86]

Truck: 1986 K10 w/ a manual transmission. 4 Speed (L, 1, 2, 3, R)

I have been experiencing some issues lately with my carburetor (an Edelbrock 4-barrel not sure of the specific model):

Cold starting - Truck is somewhat of a pain to get started after sitting for any length of time. Within the last few days it has had a tendency to idle way down shortly after firing up. It sounds like it wants to go dead, but hasn't yet as I've given it a little gas each time to keep it running.

Stalling on initital takeoff - Without fail, 10 times out of 10 the truck wants to stall upon first taking off in first gear. I have to rev the engine up higher than typically needed to "fight through" this initial stall. It also similarly attempts to stall when running through each gear for the first time.

Acceleration delay while driving - Also recently, I have noticed a delay or "hitch" when shifting up and attempting to accelerate. Most notably in 3rd, but it has happened in 2nd as well. This has occurred randomly and seems to not be connected to how long the truck has been running. I've had it happen 10 minutes in just as regularly as it has occurred after I've been driving for 20-30 minutes or better.

Any ideas what this could mean? I'm hoping to avoid a complete rebuild, but no matter, I want to fix it correctly and not put a band-aid on it.

[luke_jones]

Check the timing? I was having some sluggishness in mine at take off or acceleration, turned out the bolt that locks down my distributor had come loose and let it move some. That sluggishness combined with a low idle and the hard start could mean that your timing needs to be advanced.

Got mine set at about 13° advanced and all my problems went away.

[WDE86]

Originally Posted by luke_jones

Check the timing? I was having some sluggishness in mine at take off or acceleration, turned out the bolt that locks down my distributor had come loose and let it move some. That sluggishness combined with a low idle and the hard start could mean that your timing needs to be advanced.

Got mine set at about 13° advanced and all my problems went away.

Interesting. I never considered that, but will check once I get home. This is my first square ever and I am pretty much having to learn everything as I go. Not knowing can cost a lot of money I've learned in the past few weeks.