I bought this truck at a DNR auction to haul wood in 1993. It had 69,000 miles on it. Since then it has 92,000 miles on it. I put a Boss plow on it, but I've been having problems with it the past two years. I've had it into an automotive repair shop several times the past two years. This year I started it so I could plow snow. I went into the house while it warmed up. I came out later to find it wasn't running. I tried to start it and it wouldn't start again. I had the same problem last year.

The shop keeps telling me to get rid of it and buy a newer one that isn't a carburetor, but fuel injected. They seem to think the carb is running too rich and I don't use it enough. I'm not a mechanic, so I don't know what to think. Any thoughts?

Sounds like your choke isn't coming off and flooding it out.

If flooded, hold pedal to floor while trying to restart.

Sounds like the shop doesn’t know how to work on carbs, I would start with the choke, should be a vacuum advance on the side of the carb and check your vacuum hoses. Sounds like that as it warms up it’s not shutting down the choke. You can also put a manual choke on it if you want to.

IMO
B

X2

Find a shop that knows how to work on carbs and older ignition systems. There's a lot of reasons a vehicle could die after warming up and not restart. First step would be to find out if it has spark or not, and then go down the rabbit hole from there.

Trapper 7 I wish you lived closer to me, I could help you out.

B

It's called a choke pull-off that has vacuum to it, but and it should pull the choke open about 3/16th of an inch as soon as started. I doubt your make it back in the house if it wasn't working before it flooded tho.

I'd guess the electric coil that opens the choke is bad.... But I've been wrong before.


Find an old geezer like me in your area that grew up fixing carbuerated cars.lol

I had a truck before this one that had a manual choke. That worked pretty good. I should mention that to them.

He just called me and said there wasn't any spark. They were trying a new coil.

I wouldn’t be surprised if that doesn’t fix it. Don’t remember what it’s called but there’s a resistor on the fire wall that can cause this same problem. Always carried an extra in the glove box.



B

Ballast resistor. Common mopar fail. Some have 2 prongs some have 4. Two wires. If it is a 4 prong switch to the other side.

Been there , done that.

Usually when the ballast resister burns out, your done.

This happened last year and again this year I take it?

I assume it does not have points. Dodge distributers are known for going bad, the shaft wobbles and hits the pickup plate. The pickup plates take place of old style points, dist. will have a star shaped wheel under the rotor, when it passes the pickup plate it fires a cylinder. Carbs are fairly easy and reliable. You could wire choke open and pump a lot to start or buy a manual choke kit for it. Young mechanics have lost the skill and knowledge of older vehicles. I make nice side cash working on original classic cars, young guys won't touch a power glide or set points.

A test light should turn on and off while cranking, on one of the small wires on the coil.

If it has a ballast resistor on the firewall , it has electronic ignition.

Yes , I know how to set points too. Can rebuild carburetors as well. Rebuild wheel cylinders and calipers. Still got my timing light , dwell meter and feeler gauges.

Sounds like you and I have crawled through some of the same grease. Props.

x1000000


This is likely the problem.
My 79 died in the driveway one time. It was the amp meter gauge, one of the studs on the back melted off, no spark then eiter.

Don’t sell it, that is a helluva truck. I have a 75 w300 I picked up a couple years ago for wood/work. It’s still going, although I am building a 360 for it. I see a lot of new trucks broken down on the side of the road these days...expensive to fix I might add.
You should drive it more often too. Would do it justice to drive on down to the grocery store now and then.

X2

Just tossing this out there, the resister many speak of comes into play as a protection for points, during cranking engine 12V is supplied to points and coil. When released from crank mode to run resister drops voltage to 6-8 V to slow prevent points wear burn. As I remember a symptom of resister failure is engine has spark and tries to run during crank but looses it when key is released to run. The magnet pickup plate or eye as some call it has a high fail rate, and is simply a newer way of doing what points did. loose distributer shaft, and right under dist is a bushing in the block that wears and can be replaced. First when engine is not running is "suck, squeeze, bang and blow" determine if spark exists, if it has spark, check for flooding, wet plugs, or dry plugs, lack of fuel.