I have recently aquired a 1985 power ram 100 with a 318. when I drove it home it ran fine. 2 days later I was driving it around and it just died. got it pushed into driveway and took off the air cleaner and noticed whoever had messed with the carb adjustment had used the fast idle screw as both fast idle and curb idle speed (with no spring on screw) found the low idle screw in the air floating around and not touching anything. finally figured out how the idle screws went together (thanks to the $20 manual I bought) got the idle somewhere close, because I don't have a tach for it yet. ran up the engine put it in gear and went. stopped at a stop sign and it died but would start back up. idle kind of high in park and kind of slams into gear. checked all vac hoses and no evidence of leaks. soooooo. possible internal intake leak? any help would be very much appreciated before i tear the intake off.

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On my '81 the thick gasket at the base of the carb was gone...there was a hole about 1/4" by 1/8" that was a vacuum leak. Spray a little carb cleaner around the base of the carb...if your idle changes then you have a vacuum lean on yours too. With that many years on the carb I'd rebuild it anyway.

Derek

 

I have very similar issues, idle is sparattic at best. Sometimes low enough to stall, sometimes high enough that it wants to rip the tranny apart. Did you buy a carb manual or the haynes book? if the haynes book, is there enough info to rebuild the carb? I really want to do it myself, but I don't know much about carbs, but I still don't want to take it in. My truck is the same year with the same engine.

 

Yea, the haynes book sees to have the specifics on rebuilding you're carb. a chilton manual which I was given isrmy truck and found the carb was rebuilt and base plate replaced. so most likely it's a vaccum leak that is sparratic. possible hoses or maybe possibly in my case a leaking intake gasket. I will do more research and talk to the old timers at my job who have owned such trucks. but, the one guy I had talked to about my problem almost insists that it is the intake gasket! so, take that with a grain of salt. I will wait a couple of days to see if anyone else has any other ideas, I already tried spraying carb cleaner around everything and idle did not change! sorry about the typing, my computer won't let me change anything without deleting and I really don't want to type everything all over again!

Dan

 

and by the way thank you pushnfords for reminding me aboout spraying around everything. It's been a while since I have owened a carbuerated engine. thanks again!