So I was just looking for a Chevy Pickup...

[USMC 00-08]

It is 1944mb's truck that I was talking about. The truck sounded great and no sign that it had a dead cylinder except I noticed it did not have the get up and go like my M135 has in high range when we drove it from Big Timber to Bozeman and back. We checked the carburetor, transmission linkage, etc.

Here is a video of it with the dead cylinder. I can't tell at all by the video. I really hope it is not the case with yours.

Here is a video of mine and at 6:19, you can see the 0-50 test.

 

[cucvmule]

Pulling and reading plugs helps with looking at condition of each cylinder.

Leakdown always helped me with ring sealing, broken rings, broken piston lands from overheating or over revving. If the air is leaking into the intake when intake valve closed, worn, bent, burned valve. Same with exhaust valve, air leaking into exhaust.

Sometimes it is as simple as a bad plug wire. I could also locate troubled cylinder by taking plug wire off each cylinder and see how much different engine runs. Sparkplugs are not what they once were either. Plug gaps, coil behavior will also give an engine fits. Mechanical or vacuum advance working, correctly.

But in the end worn ring sealing has the effect of lower horsepower. A compression test will tell that tale. Since the engine has not been sitting for 40 years I would not think that the rings are glued, carboned stiff, stuck but possible. Not knowing what prior owner has done or the condition it was in when they got it does not help either as it could have been the same before. I have bought engines that have sat for 5 years have stuck rings and after starting, running engine dripping Marvels Mystery oil down the carburetor, I have loosened rings and have after oil burns off had the engine running good.

I have also pulled pistons and put on just rings and have had good running engines also. A simple ring and bearing job could restore to like new condition. And its fun. But easy for me to say after dozens of repair and or restorations.

 

[JakeM211]

Good evening all. Time for a little update.
Got the rear lights attached and managed to at least wire the brake lights up to a switch so people have some indication of when I'm stopping though if you can't see this big, slow thing in front of you well.... Anyhow I took it to town the other day and had the inner duel that was flat fixed. The tire guys started looking things over and were blown away. Most of the tires on this thing are from 1967 and the latest was 72. 1964 is the date indicated on the distributor of its last official overhaul. They were cringing a bit because those tires are so old but at the same time were also impressed saying "You don't see modern tires holding up that well."
Needless to say, I am going to start replacing tires starting with the 2 on the front!
Also I got brake lights and blinkers working YAY.

In other news, the carb is definitely a problem if not the problem. I've been working with the fuel mix and I can get close to where it feels better and gets up to near 50 pretty well but any time I had it set so it would act better it would want to flood out at stops. Never would work right and even going down hills you could feel that the engine was holding the truck back, starving for fuel, and wouldn't go past 48 down a good grade at one point even though I've had it go up to 56 down that same hill before.
Started working with it again this morning and it went from getting a little adjustment out of it to none again just like when I bought it. Tore it all down and found that the ends of both adjusting needles had broken off and were stuck in the holes. I'm pretty sure one may have been broken when I brought it home or broke when I first started trying to turn them and the second one broke this morning and I wasn't even using a screwdriver. That might explain why I had some adjustment but not enough to get it to ever run right. Oh well, I was looking at getting a replacement carb anyway so this just cements the idea. I'll update when I get another carb.

 

[JakeM211]

New Carb installed, though it was damaged in shipping, and the governor housing was snapped off. My old governor was still in good shape and all the internals from the new one were ok so I swapped them out and everything works well. New carb didn't make a huge difference but seeing that all the old seals were shot I don't feel bad about having a new one.
Bought a new 24V fuel pump and got it installed tonight and pulled out the original pump so now I just have the pickup tube and it works well. After a bunch of adjust, drive, stop, adjust, drive I finally got her screaming along at 52 and even accelerating, if slowly uphill for once. Still don't have the mix just right but getting close. It's not firing back through the carb anymore, and she's driving with the choke almost fully open now where I had to have it closed about halfway to get it moving with the old carb and pump. I think with a little fine-tuning I'll be able to get it fully open but I got hungry for dinner and had to stop playing with my toy. Oh and after working over the wires to the pump I think wiggling them did some good as the fuel gauge came alive today and I can now see that I have $100 in the tank, AKA half lol. I think the speedo is pretty well shot. It just does the springy bit as it tries to work but just can't. Though the odometer works fine so I figure the cable and such is ok.
Just ordered the timing light adapter and hope, in a couple days to be able to tell if my timing is anywhere near correct or not as well.

Other things of note are that I have intermittent air. Sometimes it comes up to pressure and sometimes nothing. I think the air pack has an issue because it was letting the air constantly bleed back to the air cleaner and bubble the oil the other day. Have not dug in further on that as of yet.
Also the transmission has a long shift from second to third. All other shifts are solid and once it gets into gear it doesn't slip and drives fine. She just takes her time getting into third for some reason.

Over all I had a good night tonight and didn't even get pulled over by the Sherrif heading the other way down the highway for not having any plates on it yet. At least I know I wasn't speeding, right?

 

[rustystud]

New Carb installed, though it was damaged in shipping, and the governor housing was snapped off. My old governor was still in good shape and all the internals from the new one were ok so I swapped them out and everything works well. New carb didn't make a huge difference but seeing that all the old seals were shot I don't feel bad about having a new one.
Bought a new 24V fuel pump and got it installed tonight and pulled out the original pump so now I just have the pickup tube and it works well. After a bunch of adjust, drive, stop, adjust, drive I finally got her screaming along at 52 and even accelerating, if slowly uphill for once. Still don't have the mix just right but getting close. It's not firing back through the carb anymore, and she's driving with the choke almost fully open now where I had to have it closed about halfway to get it moving with the old carb and pump. I think with a little fine-tuning I'll be able to get it fully open but I got hungry for dinner and had to stop playing with my toy. Oh and after working over the wires to the pump I think wiggling them did some good as the fuel gauge came alive today and I can now see that I have $100 in the tank, AKA half lol. I think the speedo is pretty well shot. It just does the springy bit as it tries to work but just can't. Though the odometer works fine so I figure the cable and such is ok.
Just ordered the timing light adapter and hope, in a couple days to be able to tell if my timing is anywhere near correct or not as well.

Other things of note are that I have intermittent air. Sometimes it comes up to pressure and sometimes nothing. I think the air pack has an issue because it was letting the air constantly bleed back to the air cleaner and bubble the oil the other day. Have not dug in further on that as of yet.
Also the transmission has a long shift from second to third. All other shifts are solid and once it gets into gear it doesn't slip and drives fine. She just takes her time getting into third for some reason.

Over all I had a good night tonight and didn't even get pulled over by the Sherrif heading the other way down the highway for not having any plates on it yet. At least I know I wasn't speeding, right?

On the transmission shift problem, check the adjustment of your bands. They need regular adjusting to stay close to the drums (wear of friction material ) . Also check your fluid level.

 

[cucvmule]

Progress moving forward one step at a time gets to the finish whether you are tortoise or hare.

Running the engine with new fluids and frequently will get the machine back into a mechanical rhythm, and keep a vigilant eye on the fluids for any changes until your confidence in that area meets expectations.

Keep on Truckin

 

[JakeM211]

Thanks for the tip, Rusty. I found a post around here on how to do that and got the TM's downloaded and saw a few other things to check.

And now the saga continues!!!!
I was figuring on getting her into the DMV last Friday but I swear this thing is like a dog that knows it's going to the vet! LOL
So Thursday night I got her warmed up after work and hooked up my shiny new timing adapter, got it timed nice, and brought the RPM down to where the TM said it should be. So far so good. I go down and fuel her up and proceed to take her for a spin and see how she feels and then go to turn up a road to head back home and no brake! Or at least very little. Got it back home and bled things out and seemed to have brakes again so off I went about 3 miles up the highway. She ran pretty well running around 48 or so and I was feeling good about it then I stopped at a stop sign and she flat-out died once I came to a stop. Never had a problem with it dying before this. I see smoke of some kind coming out from under the hood and take a look, finding that I have gas pouring out the carb all over the manifolds.
So I take the top off and find that the float on this rebuild carb is just barely floating so of course the gas just keeps coming. GRRRRR I figure there is a pinhole somewhere in it and it has slowly been taking on liquid though I have not pulled it out to verify as of yet. I put it back together, started cranking her with the ignition off, and then flipped it on, and Vroom off I go. Slammed her into F1 and off I went. As long as I kept moving it would use enough gas so it wouldn't flood out lol. Had to blow through one stop sign (lucky I live out in the country) and did a California stop at the next one to get back on the highway and back home where she died again as I stopped. Oh and the brakes went back to half-ass working halfway home as well. Ahhhh good times!

Pulled the Air Pak off today and am pretty sure I found the issue. Other than just being full of rusty crud.

Surprisingly the rest of the rubber in this thing looks pretty good. Unfortunately, the steel bushing on the front welded itself to the aluminum as they will do and took most of the threads with it.

The main can is pretty pitted other than the back 1/3rd where most of the movement looks to take place. I blew air into the back and the plunger was sealing well on the way out.
So it looks to be nearly impossible to get a new Pak from all that I have read. However, I remember coming across a thread on some forum or other where somebody had listed a few NAPA part numbers that were said to be viable replacements though now that I'm actually looking for that thread I can't find it of course. I also see several stating that the 5-ton kit will work for most of it and have seen a few with a replacement front end to that (actuator valve) or whatever you call it They look the same from the pics at least and I think if I could get ahold of one of those that would work I think I could get this thing back together.
Anyhow that's where things are at as of now. As always thoughts and advice is always appreciated.