Severe bogging, surging under load...

[effinrich]

Update: Before leaving work on Friday night I turned the choke a bit richer and tightened a loose hose clamp to the booster. The truck made it home without incident. I'm not sure which, or either, of those things helped. Yesterday I changed the hose to the transmission vacuum, which was barely hanging on and had two rips. I also changed the fuel hose directly under the tank. So far so good. I still think the timing is a little off, as I heard some miniature backfires yesterday.

I was pulled over for not using a blinker, because they only come on when I hit the brakes, so now I'm trying to quickly narrow down that issue. Supposedly a common cause of this is a bad ground to the taillights. There is no ground strap to the rear, and I've yet to find the ground in the rear.

[brokenspoke]

Originally Posted by effinrich

Update: Before leaving work on Friday night I turned the choke a bit richer and tightened a loose hose clamp to the booster. The truck made it home without incident. I'm not sure which, or either, of those things helped. Yesterday I changed the hose to the transmission vacuum, which was barely hanging on and had two rips. I also changed the fuel hose directly under the tank. So far so good. I still think the timing is a little off, as I heard some miniature backfires yesterday.

I was pulled over for not using a blinker, because they only come on when I hit the brakes, so now I'm trying to quickly narrow down that issue. Supposedly a common cause of this is a bad ground to the taillights. There is no ground strap to the rear, and I've yet to find the ground in the rear.

Sounds like your on track....I would use a vacum guage to set carb and timing now...my 2 cents

[effinrich]

I drove it up and down the 118 to the 101 for about 35-40 minutes yesterday, and everything was great. Today, after a hard start, the issues came back after about 20 minutes into my drive. I didn't adjust anything since friday. Could carb or timing issues come and go like that?

A buddy suggested that the electric choke could be slipping.

[Bears63]

I can't help with the running, but I can with your ground question. Bad grounding on these trucks is very common. These trucks did not have a ground on the back exactly. The taillights are grounded by the bed being bolted to the frame. However, over time corrosion happens and can ruin that ground. I had this exact same problem on my '71. The fix is to bolt a couple of ground straps from the sheetmetal on the bed to the frame. Voila, taillights will be grounded once more. If that doesn't fix your blinker issue you may have to look further into it, but that is a quick and easy thing to try.

[effinrich]

Thanks, Bears63. That clears up a lot. Hopefully that's the issue and will be an easy fix.

-rich