a lost kid and his devious six

[jmon1123]

Here’s a long one incase you need someone else’s problem on your mind, This one has thrown me for a loop around the sun and back (not that I have the knowledge to diagnose it in the first place… This learning curve is not what I expected

Here’s a breakdown of how I violated my poor truck over the past year:

Started with my buddy giving me a jump and he reversed the leads, and incinerated the power wire going to the junction from the positive cable and likely more somewhere else. To get home I trimmed the cooked wire, shoddily connected the wires with some electrical tape and went on my way

I was out one night with the lady and had to coast in neutral home because of a loud burst, killing both my headlights, frying what I believe is my ignition switch/aftermarket radio, and shutting my engine down.. and of course cooking through my shoddy electrical tape patch.

In my infinite wisdom, I took it upon myself to further trim the junction to cable wire and wrap it double the first time. Drove around for a while and took out the radio when I saw smoke from the dash while it was running.

Battery started dying overnight, so I simply took off the negative wire whenever I parked it. After putting in a new battery, my generator light would come on at lower rpm and i watched the needle spike to 16 volts which I assumed meant the alternator was on its way out.

Replaced the alternator and put in a new solid state voltage regulator, soldered the wires, solid connection, pulley was taught but my problem never went away. Now the voltage regulator buzzes with the generator light. The truck eats headlights, tail lights, batteries, etc.

Took it upon myself to do a valve adjustment thinking there was clatter, and when I cranked the motor, it sounded like the motor was fighting the starter, so I loosened everything up a bit and it ran.

Was in a parking lot one night, and jokingly blipped the throttle around when all of a sudden the car died and was near impossible to get it running and keep it running. It idled below 500 RPM, sputtered and coughed on accel and decel… I played around with timing a bit on the fly to see what it liked but it was never consistent.

Parked the truck for some time and tended to other life matters, then went in and replace the ignition system from points to plugs, and installed a new carburetor, to see how the engine responded, and frankly it didn’t at all.

Now I’m here replacing the ignition switch, soldering the junction wire, taking all the fuses and connectors that aren’t necessary for it to run. from what I’ve seen, and I haven’t looked very hard, but all the wires appear to be okay but the truck is still running like it’s got no legs. I did another valve adjustment the right way, and while running slightly better at an unknown timing mark, I took a video of how it sounds now.

https://youtu.be/fgykdOzAUxY

If you like murder mysteries, have at it! any questions, ideas, answers, throw them out there! I clearly need some old school education. When I realize what I’m leaving out (because there’s always something) I’ll either edit or reply to this forum… I look forward to adding ideas on my to-try list for this thing, I’ve got big plans for this truck but I want her happy again and ready for her second lease on life. Thanks guys.