Hey everyone, I am brand new to the dodge forum. I am hoping y’all can help me with my problem. I have a 1985 Dodge W100 with a 5.2L engine and 2 bbl Edelbrock carburetor. I love my truck, but it gets pretty annoying because it stalls out when I stop for a period longer than about 10 seconds or so if I have my heat and windshield wipers running at the same time. I replaced the fuel filter two weeks ago, battery a month ago, oil level is fine, and my choke is in the right position (I have a manual choke). Any help, advice, or suggestions would be very much appreciated. Thank y’all very much and I hope y’all have a good one.

 

How many miles on the engine? When's the last time you tuned it up? Does it start right up or do you have to crank for a bit to get it started? Does it stall more when the fuel level is low? The first thing I'd do is check the rubber hoses on your fuel system for any dry rot. If you have little pin holes in one, it will suck air. At low speed, the pump can't pull enough fuel. I've seen steel lines rust too. This allows the pump to cavitate. If your pump is fairly old, it may be failing inside. The ethanol in today's fuel eats older rubber parts up. I had one on a Jeep Grand Wagoneer fail in a week from the alcohol in fuel.

 

The engine has roughly 107,000 miles on it, which I find impressive considering the age. I do have to crank it a lot when I first start it. I don’t know too much about the history behind the truck; it was bought off of a farm, and they didn’t maintain it the best by any means. I only got it back in October 2019 too. I never let my fuel tank go below half, so I wouldn’t know how it starts when the fuel is low. Thank you for your suggestions, and once all the flooding is done and the weather isn’t awful, I will check it out.

 

Normally, your timing chain would be in worn but decent shape. However, when you said farm, those often rarely go on the road. I'll bet your engine never really warms up. I'm sure you have other issues but I'll bet your timing set needs to be replaced. Your truck is fairly easy to replace it as timing sets go. It's like buying a retied fire truck with 25,000 miles. Yes, few miles but lots of idle time. Figuring idle time the engine would have 250,000 miles. The same with your truck.

You're going to be chasing issues for a while but you'll have a good solid truck when you';re done. I had an '84 and have been looking for another one since mine broke in half.

 

What rpm does it idle at? Cap/rotor plugs and wires would be a good place to start. Not to familiar with the 2 bbl Edelbrock carburetors but does it have a mixture screw anywhere? Is it charging the battery? Running the heat and wipers shouldn't make a difference if it is.

 

Maybe if the alternator is getting weak...... Would be interesting to see what system voltage was, as more things were turned on.

 

Do you suppose this looks alright?

 

Yeah, that looks just fine. Does the engine idle lower as you increase demand on the alternator?

 

My carburetor is not properly calibrated. it could also be a source of my issue too.

 

Need to address that first then.