electrical problem??? need help if anybody knows

[SAILOR-ERL]

i recently bought my 73 Cheyenne long bed 350 5.7 4bbl ( which im in love with so dearly...) ive did i tune up, and as well changed the edelbrock intake manifold, ignition coil, and a edelbrock carb. and changed the fuel pump
the problem is the truck runs fine when it is not fully warmed up. but when it heats up, not over heating, while its on drive or it goes on reverse it turns off. im going to check the ignition coil, which is an accel, performance. i may think its faulty and not giving out the spark it needs. the timing is perfect, its not idling and i check the timing chain as well. hope anybody can give me some feed back and some advice what i should check on

73 chevy cheyenne
350 5.7 4bbl

on the works to restore.

pains to see her like this...

[piecesparts]

Check the choke plate on the carb. It sounds like your choke is going shut when the cold idle circuit is warming up and disengaging. Just a guess---Also, check the coil---never did like Accel coils.

[SAILOR-ERL]

i just checked the ignition coils primary and secondary output. and its fine. im still going to change the coil to stock. i notice the problem started ever since i changed the spark plugs. i may think there faulty as well, i notice since the plugs where changed when turning on the ignition it lags to turn on, it use to start up right away. i doubled checked the gaping on the plugs when i installed them. it seems more like an electrical problem. but i hope its choke, thanx for the advice.

[dammitmitchell]

wouldnt be an electrical problem...

id go with the choke..., also if you did these changes did you leave any of the vaccum ports open?
cap the "open" vaccum ports, and make sure your brake booster is connected properly
and then also check to make sure that the choke is working properly

[dammitmitchell]

and then vaccum tune it.... a truck can seem to run like a beast until you put it in gear and just die out if you diddnt tune your stuff...

holley and edlebrock have downloadable pdf files to teach you the basics on vaccum tuning, just google search it...

[2tons of fun]

sounds like you fubard you plug order.

you really have to be sure that the wires are fully seated on the cap and the plug, can be a real pain on the plug end dending on wire brand, wire end position, and exhaust type

[SAILOR-ERL]

thanx for the advice, since i dont have to smog the truck i took off the egr valve. the intake manifold doesnt have the port where it use been. i did replace the ported vacuum switch. i know one goes to the egr valve but i pluged it. but i dont know where the other port goes to connect. i took off the smog pump. and pluged the connections that are on the headers. (which im replacing asap.) the vacuum advance is connected to the the carb ( time port). but like i mention earlier, before i changed the intake manifold, the carb, i changed out the igntion coil, the wire set (bosch) and the spark plugs ( ac delco, non rapid fire) and the problem started after the 2nd day. i may need to get a vacuum gauge if i need to vacuum tune. i was as well considering getting MSD ignition distributor, coil, and a igntion control, my question is should I? hope to hear some feed back on that question. i may need to take pix to show the progress that i made and what may seem to be a problem.

[dammitmitchell]

did you swap the vac lines for the brake booster and pcv breather by chance?
dunno if that'll help..

[SAILOR-ERL]

so ive changed the ignition coil, and still the same problem. a mechanic checked, and said it was the carb (edelbrock) that the air horn was the problem, so i swapt it out, luckly 3 month warranty, and i work at autozone which helped out getting discount. and still the problem persist. im swaping out the wiresets today, and checking the spark plugs. but my dad said that his mechanic said that its going to be the starter, causing a short. its a pain in the ass that the truck is been a heavy problem for me to get to skool and get to work. but im still trying to get the truck up and running. any thoughts of my case, greatly appreciate some feed back..



still not giving up on her.

[STOCKISH]

I hope your dads mechanic has quit working on cars. A starter is not going to give these typ of problems. Sounds like a mis adjusted choke. Do you have available to you a HEI distributor you can wire in and see if it helps anything. I had a old truck that died when hot and it wound up being the condenser for the points type ignition.

[joe231]

Originally Posted by SAILOR-ERL

the problem is the truck runs fine when it is not fully warmed up. but when it heats up, not over heating, while its on drive or it goes on reverse it turns off.

so does it die in drive and reverse, or just reverse?

With it at operating temperature, is the choke fully open?

[SAILOR-ERL]

I replaced the starter either way, the damn thing tested bad, luckly i got that out of the way. i was actually thinking of replacing the distributor, since i dont know when the last time the point set was replaced and the distributor. since i replaced the cap and rotor and the spark plugs and wireset, the truck stalls when its warmed about 150 degrees, it stalls when i do a complete stop at the light, and it wont turn on after that. i have to let the truck cool down so i can drive it again. sux for me because i live in bakersfield where currently its about 105 degrees during the day... the choke is fine, but i need to a just the rpm or the vacuum a bit. its idling to low.

but another problem im having is adjusting the gaping on the starter to the fly wheel. haha. how many shims should i add on? i tried the inner and the outer bolt with 4 shims max, subract one shim at time and still the gear is either away or to close to the fly wheel. i tried both bolts with shims, one side at a time. but still no use. the original starter had no shims, i tried out with the new one and it started the squeeling noise. but with shims its doing the same thing. when and after the ignition swith turns on.


its a bit annoying but i take brakes..

[donut]

IMO, nail down one thing first. When you did the tune-up did you check the dwell? Clean the contacts on the points?
Granted it's been 25 years since I touched a set of points, but I still have my tach/dwell meter kicking around somewhere.
Double check the firing order, you may have crossed up a wire changing them out. Look for missing, cracked vacuum lines. Re-check the timing, re-set the idle. (I'd also find a way to hold open the choke, take that out of the tuning equation)

Starter, take it back and get them to bench test it. It shouldn't be squealing at all. I'm on my 3rd A-Z starter. First I couldn't shim correctly and after 3 days it died, 2nd lasted a week, 3rd, no shims, and has been fine so far (almost a year) Add shims as needed, don't put them all in and start removing them 1 at a time.

[SAILOR-ERL]

thanx for the advice! how do you check the point set with a dwell meter? do you by chance have a diagram? im going to check the starter tomorrow i just havent taken a break on skool and work and on the truck.

[Gregs71]

My 87 would die after it warmed up, and it ended up being a bad spark plug wire(s). Ran just fine cold. Maybe you have a faulty plug wire????

[SAILOR-ERL]

i got lifetime warranty on the wire sets. i was going to replace the plugs as well. im just going to save the new distributor and the point set last. i its about 40 bux at autozone. luckly i work there and get a bit of a discount

[donut]

I don't remember off the top of my head for the dwell meter. IIRC 1 side went to the coil, one side to the bat. HOWEVER, if I were in your shoes, I'd replace the points, or clean them up with a small file and set them with a feeler gauge. that way you can eliminate that as a problem. If the $ permit, an HEI wouldn't be a bad upgrade.