I inherited a 1991 from my father-in-law, he used it for a business that he shut in 2009 and since they sold their property he has no place to store it. 2 years ago it was in pretty fair shape, however the mice moved in.

He said it barely ran last time he moved it in 2012. Finding that the ground wire was missing from the battery and only a 14ga wire was present to the radiator support, along with old gas and obvious lack of maintenance I'm not surprised.

I'm tearing into the accessories, removing intake, cleaning TBI, replacing hoses belts, fixing all the chewed wires on harness etc before I try to fire it up.

Question is on the air pumps, I have two of them, and when you spin them by hand they sound like an old metal band aid box full of gravel. Besides not passing a visual inspection and not aiding the cat in reducing emissions, is there any downside to either leaving the belt off or removing them all together? The truck has a 12' flatbed on it and will really only be used for a parade float, trips to Home Depot for the big stuff and ocassional trip to the dump. Meaning, I don't want to dump thousands into replacing everything or restoring it back to original, I'm just interested in making it functional and serviceable.

 

It will run just fine without the air pumps. Will likely fail emissions though.... but, being 28 years old, isn't it exempt by now??

Air pumps are just to get the cat hot enough to do its job better.