Sometimes you have to Climb In

My father-in-law needed some help with his 85 GMC stepside pickup. The truck had been sitting for a while, and no longer started. He just replaced the battery, so that was a known good item. The pickup cranks over, but doesn’t make any attempts to run. There’s three things an engine needs to run; air, fuel, and spark. As gasoline ages it starts to get sticky and can varnish parts. With this being a carbureted engine I was guessing that all the little ports and orifices in the carb had clogged up from the old gas.

The first thing I did was pour SeaFoam gas treatment into the tank. This will help freshen the gas and dissolve any deposits in the fuel system.

Next, I removed the air filter to gain access to the carburetor. I quickly discovered the only way I could see the carburetor properly was to climb into the engine bay. When taking such action, you want to make sure you’re not going to knock anything loose, or pinch any hoses or wiring. Fortunately there were exposed sections of the frame to safely place my feet.

Once sitting inside the engine bay, I could see into the carburetor more clearly to clean it. Now, I don’t know much about this specific model of Edelbrock carburetor, but in general you want to spray carb cleaner into every little port and orifice you can find. I used AutoZone brand cleaner for this project, but any will do. You can even order some from Amazon.

I also loosened the retaining plate for the step-up metering valves, carefully removed the piston, valve rod, and spring, and then sprayed carb cleaner into the rod channel. It made a satisfying gurgling sound…

I reassembled everything, sprayed a little starting fluid into the air filter, and she fired right up on the first try! The engine did run a little rough for the first few minutes, but then smoothed out. First thing we did was go to the nearest gas station to put some fresh gas in the tank.

There was still one little problem with the truck… The latch to the glove box had completely fallen out. Whoever messed with the latch before didn’t properly fasten the retaining nut (bottom center in the photo below).

First, I had to determine how the barbs and channels of the knob fit inside the latch cylinder.

Once I figured out the correct placement of the knob, I inserted the retaining nut from the front of the glove box door, and screwed the latch body onto the nut while making sure it aligned to the latch bar.

With the latch correctly installed, I then had to insert the knob by lining it up and holding down the retaining pins while pushing it home.