I'm No Mechanic

[harnalien]

Perhaps I shouldn't feel so bad, at least I tried. I just tried to do a tune up for the first time in a few years on my 84 shorty. It ran decent before, and now, it won't stay running at idle. When it's revved, it sounds fine, but won't idle. I tried to adjust the idle on it, but no help. The kicker is, sometimes it will run, but if i turn it off and turn it back on, it will do the same thing. I believe i have a vacuum leak somewhere, but i can't find it. My firing order is correct. I changed the wires, plugs, pcv, dizzy cap, and rotor. I tried to take it to a local lube shop that does tune ups, and they didn't know how to work on a carburated engine. I'll have to find somewhere that can figure out what is going on. I don't think it's serious though. The good part about this is I had my dad on the phone afterwards trying to tell me what to check. Funny, I didn't want to learn when he tried to teach me as a kid. Live and learn.

[84 400]

ha ha yeah, you need an old timer who knows there way around a carb near you. Did you play with the timeing? also was that truck on ebay?? It is funny how all these shops can't work on carbs any more. any ways as i am no mechanic eather good luck wish i had some advice to give you

[pugs]

double ck the firing order mite have a plug wire in the wrong place

[harnalien]

Yep, I got it off Ebay a week ago. I couldn't find one near me locally in decent condition for what I wanted to pay. It's too bad I've already got something wrong, but at least it's my fault. like I said, I don't think it's anything serious, just something more than I can figure out at this point.

[crawdad]

Double check your wires again for the correct firing order, and also, double check to make sure that you have the wires pushed onto the plugs and the cap real good. Sometimes you think they are on there good and they're not. Push them on real good. Out of all the things you did to it, and barring a bad cap or rotor, the wires are about the only thing that could cause what you describe.

[Slonaker]

Make sure the wires snap into place on the distributor cap and rotor. If they don't snap, you probably don't have them on right.

It sounds like a vacuum leak, though. Look at the PCV and make sure the valve fits snugly into the grommet. Make sure that the grommet is in good shape. Also make sure that the hose leading to the PCV did not crack when you were messing with it.

Make sure you did not bump any vacuum lines lose, or crack one that has gotten brittle with age. Listen to the engine, and see if you hear a hissing sound that would indicate something is sucking air.

Slonaker