I bought a 1979 4wd pickup about a month ago, changed the fluids, filters, plugs and wires so far.

Recently (in the past week or so) it has been having occasional trouble starting, like I really gotta lean on the ignition and let the starter rev it for a while, and sometimes after driving around it will die at idle.

When Im driving around and depress the clutch to stop or slip into neutral at a light or sign the engine will idle at 1k where it usually does, grumble some and rapidly idle down to nothing, and then I have trouble starting it again. The guy at the auto parts store mentioned a vacuum problem, so I got it running in the parking lot where it idled just fine (it died when I was at the light to get in there in the first place) and I snooped around under the hood.

After a while it started to wind down like it would before and then I disconnected the brake booster vac line and plugged it with my thumb which caused it to idle right back up to 1k until I let off then it bogged like usual with an open vac line before idling down to nothing.

I also noticed the crank case breather (the front one) is puking a little oil.

I was also told it may be a timing issue, but the problem just developed, so IDK about that.

Any help would be appreciated!

 

Get Some Carb Cleaner And Spray Around Your carb just might be full of crap...If All Fails Just Swap In a Weber lol

 

I gave it a few good zaps with the carb cleaner, and while I was under there took care of the vac lines connected to the charcoal canisters and whatnot, capped them off.

It seemed to run better, I was able to take it around the neighborhood and it didnt die on me, then I remembered I hadnt swapped out the fuel filter, so I did that, revved it up to circulate gas through the lines and when it idles from that it made like it was going to stumble and stall.

This last time it almost felt like one of the plugs was out, it idled and then idled rougher and rougher, it would smooth out with gas, and thats where it stands now, I plan on pulling the plugs and check them out...

I actually would like to swap in a AeroInjector instead of a webber, one day...

 

OOOOO hmmm change out the fuel filter and You might wanna do a compression check....might be a bent valve ....

 

Looks like it was just fuel filter and dirty carb, I sprayed it down and swapped in a fresh filter, it ran a little rocky for about an hour and its been a dream ever since

Next is a radiator flush, the texas heat and 3 hours on the highway did bad things to my temperature gauge, no damage, but I noticed some sediment in it, and I dont want to have to worry about overheating!

thanks for all your help! I need to post some pics of the truck soon anyhow...