elmo runs!!!

Well, I went outside to work on my sesame street elmo truck today. It has an electric fuel pump added to he left inner fender. I already had the carb off to clean it out. I tested the elect pumps pressure,,,,20 psi!! A bit too much for the carb to handle I know. So I added a regulator to it for now. I got the pressure down to 3.5 psi for now, see how that does. Well, anyhow, the carb was really gunked up on this thing, I took it completely apart. Tried not to tear the gaskets, cleaned it all out, put it all back together. I pulled all 6 spark plugs, blasted them a bit to clean em, they are ready to go back on. I squirted a bit of oil in each cylinder while I had them out, turned the engine over by hand, it all seems free and fine. I put all the plugs back in, bolted the carb on, fire up the pump, check for leaks....all seems ok. I pulled back on the starter handle with the ignition off...man I had to crank on that thing for a while to get even a little bit of oil pressure. I stopped and let the starter cool down a bit before I try again. After it cooled I had another try, this time with the ignition on. Cranked on it a bit, nothing. Gave it a shot of starting fluid. Actually I got my 13-year-old son to do that while cranking.....Bang! It fired! I cranked a bit more and it started right up. WOW what a noisy thing! Sounds like the valves need adjusting for sure. Is there an adjustment for this? Oh, and the smoke! I am guessing by the amount now dripping out of the muffler that was added to this thing under the Trans that someone else had put some oil in the cylinders at one time too. At least that’s what I am hoping they did. It ran pretty rough, but at least its running. Oil pressure came up to about 50 or so at a med-high idle. After about 10 minutes of running the smoke subsided quite a bit, but is still smoking some, imagine most if it is what was dripping from the muffler. The water temp never got above 140 or so. Might not even have a t-stat in it? I figured by now that I have completely smoked the neighborhood plenty good by now. I will work on it a bit more tomorrow. BUT I notice that there is oil all over everything, a light film,,,,,oops, it was coming from the exhaust! All that oil in it made it up and out the pipe way up high. No big deal, Elmo needs some lube anyhow.... But the neighbors Tahoe parked right next to me,,,,,well lets say that I had to wash it about 3-4 times before he gets home and sees it,,,hehe

Tomorrow I am going to try to get it idling a bit more smooth and see if it ever quits smoking. After I am satisfied with how it idles and I get the brakes working, Trans gets replaced. Oh and I guess while its running I might see if I can get the dump to work,,maybe, that is if the PTO in the Trans will let it?

elmos running

WHOO HOO GET YOU SOME,glad for you ,makes you get the warm fuzzies just thinking about it,just thought i would tell all what GMC stands for,GENERATE MORE CASH,good luck keep posting

RE: elmos running

Cool Dave , you gonna at least try the trans ? It isn't like you could hurt it . Well one hurdle down , did you source a trans yet or still looking ?

RE: elmos running

good job getting it running. Do attach some pics once in a while.

RE: elmos running

Alright! No better feeling then hearing something run for the first time. What bigmike said

RE: elmos running

wooot

Thant Cool When You get ti all fixed up and painted at a event we can park them all in a line showing the changes over the years.

Great job! I just got mine home myself this morning around 4. No belts on the engine, so I had to just let it roll off the trailer into a tree. Took a couple batteries and an electric fuel pump, and after a few minutes of cranking, it fired up. Ran REAL rough, so I shut it down, and started it again, and it smoothed out real well. Just for grins, I put it in F-1, and it started to move! Since I had no brakes, I had a buddy of mine walk next to me with a log, so in case it died on the drive up the hill to the shop it wouldn't roll too far, but it never died, and dang near made it up at just an idle. Man I love this truck already. Will post pics soon.

By the way, since I'm still waiting on my manuals to be e-mailed to me, does anyone know the part #'s to the belts, and where's the filler for the brake reservoir? I was just gonna wrap s string around the pullies to get a measurement, then go to Napa or Autozone and get the right length belts. but if anyone has the numbers, that'd be real handy.

Glad we could help out naming the beast! Love to see it when Elmo is done.

Master cylinder is accessed thriugh a hole under the drivers feet in the floorboard.

napa v-belt numbers are 25-28583 and 25-28501 master cylinder is under the floor on the drivers side or the cab .

Congrats!! I know that was a great feeling to have it roar to life for the first time. It's a good sign that no rods came through the block or anything. Did you get any pics of the smoke show? Maybe your neighbor will think someone gave his vehicle a wax job since the water should bead up nicely now

Thanks for the info. Got the brakes 'feeling' like they're working, but we'll see just what happens once I get the belts on.

Another thing, what's the "REB" Powershift? I got to looking at the data plates by the steering column, and those looked a lot newer than the rest of them, then noticed that this "powershift" thing is a Memphis Equipment exclusive product, so I guess that's where mine came from, somewhere in the past.

Don't mean to hijack the thread...but what's the Powershift? Oh, and also, there seems to be two different tubes to pour in the engine oil. Which one do I use? And how on earth do I service the oil filter? I know all this is probably in the TM's, but I'm still waiting for them...