Delivery and Starting of my New 69 GMC

[LongBox]

I mentioned in an earlier thread that I found a real nice 69 GMC 910 with 53,000 miles on it. It's from an estate sale, and yesterday, I closed the deal with the original owner's granddaughter.

A friend and I went to take delivery, and to attempt a start. I was very, very happy when the seller handed me a large box of books and papers, including a GM Factory Shop manual for the 1969 GMC light-duty trucks, the original Protect-O-Plate, the folder that was given to the Grampa when he bought the truck, and about an inch thick pile of receipts for service and parts over the years.

So, on to the adventure of starting this thing. The woman told us that it had not run for two years, but that her dad, who was a mechanic for the telephone company, had told her that he had put it away properly. I bought a new battery (Group 34 fit perfectly), took up my volt/ohm.ammeter, a timing light, some tools, and a spray bottle of fresh gasoline. Took off the aircleaner, sprayed carb cleaner into the inlet filter opening, put the gas line back on the carb, sprayed some gas into the carb, and turned the key. Turned over nicely, but no fire.

Measured, and had voltage at the coil. Coil measured and both primary and secondary windings had continuity. Off came the distributor cap, looked really clean in there. We had a spare "uniset" so took out the points/condenser, and subbed in the spare set. Put the cap on, and tried again. No fire.

Decided to clean the two terminals on the coil, and while I was busy doing that, I remembered that I had not put the wire back on the point set in the dizzy. Cap back off, hooked the points up, cap on, key turned, and SUCCESS! Idles smoothly, engine very quiet, no bad smoke out the back, all dash gauges operate, and oil pressure gauge needle goes to the middle of the scale.

Called it a day at that point, locked it all up, and now waiting for the local motor vehicle registration authority to approve the title transfer, as they would not take copies of the wills and death certificates.Hopefully, can take care of that by Tuesday, but I am getting excited about driving this thing, cleaning it up, and will post more pictures as soon as I can.