Is taking off all the plug wires a bad idea?

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To:Uncle John, ft.churchill ,and Overtrained,Thanks for your help.

Well, after a friend came by and all of the great advise,my truck is on the road,again!
It took a little while,by 3:00 pm we were on the road,had a few tense moments ,cranking the engine,with no start
and almost draining the battery,trying to just getting her to start.After a while and some fussing,got it to idle,although a
bit rough.Got snow and ice,on the ground here,so she was very cold to start.
Now,hours later we are ready to test drive,and the whole while my friend and I were working on the old Chevy,his wife and kid were
loading up a cord of wood,dry seasoned N.W. mix of firewood,for the grandma who only has wood heat,at this time.
The grandma lives 50 or more miles awat,so this is no aROUND THE BLOK,oops.. type of move,we decided just to go for it,
because we were running out of daylight.
The checking of differential and transfer case fluids,was a game changer since the truck had been sitting for 9 months,and
they were both empty,would not have been good,on an old school full time 4wd.So after checking everything twice,with a cord
of wood,made the journey.
So granmas house is way out in south prairie up a sttep ass hill.and I wasn't sure if something was gonna blow,with
such an incline,and so much weight,not to mention I don't even think the timing was on,after all we were road timing her my ear.
 
Pt. Two.

And then ,there was the second hill coming up,so I pulled over to let some of the vehicles fly by,as we wern't making such
good progress uphill.And we continued on.So this time I said ,come on Betsy,and passenger and I patted dashboard,as I downshifted the
auto trans into 2nd and stepped on the gas 3/4 throttle,we proceeded up the second (smaller hill) what a relief ,we made it over,
and coasting down the other side,what happened ,then?
Oh no,loosing power steering,brakes,what the heck is going on?Uh oh she is dying,as I pull to the side with headlights on ,as it is
now dusk,the engine no longer revs.
 
Won't start

Only a quarter mile to grandmas and what could it be? To make the long story short,pulled the starter out,to it to the autoparts store,and oh,yeah.The starter went out,how did it cause the truck to die, I don't know,but that's what happened,and the nice thing about about old truck like this is the starter was around 40 bucks,and lifetime warranty ,so yeah! I can do that,dropped it in,and good to go!
 
So why did it die in the first place?

Old gas? Fuel filter? Fuel pump?


Not positive,but the dead starter was my thought,although it shouln't die because of the starter.
Most likely it was a loose battery cable,by that time,I remember we had just left the pavement,and
were on the gravel section of road,where a pothole could have loosened the bungee ,held down battery.
 
IT starts easy,but then idles high,and a little rough when driving at low speed,and it had a little backfire through the carb.

If its idling faster than it was could be the timing is better. Could also be a vacuum leak.
Backfire through carb could be a cracked distributor cap.

How did it run before you started working on the distributor?
 
If its idling faster than it was could be the timing is better. Could also be a vacuum leak.
Backfire through carb could be a cracked distributor cap.

How did it run before you started working on the distributor?

The idling is getting smoother,and no more backfiring,after a 15 mile test drive after a warm up,and then it wanted to die,and did start dying at low speeds,example:when it was at a stop sign,it died,but when running at 35 ran normal,then turned into driveway ,it died before I could park,then had to give extra gas to keep running,let of gas then would die while in nuetral,and in drive.
It ran good before the distributor was replaced,although it didn't like to start on cold days.After I got a different distributor ,it started alot easier,then the auto parts store had a brand new one one sale,it was a MSD Streetfire distributor,a complete HEI style with cap and rotor,so I got it,but still have the spare,and they took the bad one as a core.
Now I am guessing it may have some other issues,because of the engine dying,perhaps just a fuel filter I am hoping.
 
High idle and backfiring could be timing too advanced as well. After sitting for that long, most likely with e10 gas, probably have plenty of water in the tank. Those old 350s are pretty damn bulletproof though, so some fresh gas, fuel filter, etc should help out. A can of carb cleaner works great for checking for vacuum leaks around the carb base gasket and intake. Just going to take some tinkering.
 
High idle and backfiring could be timing too advanced as well. After sitting for that long, most likely with e10 gas, probably have plenty of water in the tank. Those old 350s are pretty damn bulletproof though, so some fresh gas, fuel filter, etc should help out. A can of carb cleaner works great for checking for vacuum leaks around the carb base gasket and intake. Just going to take some tinkering.

I am going to try spraying some carb cleaner on there,and check for some leaks!I got some fresh gas,but after sitting for 9 months I guess some stuff can get stirred up,maybe have a clogged fuel filter,hope it is something simple.Someone once told me to "make sure all the bolts and things are tight"on old trucks.
 
Don't laugh and if it's already been mentioned, sorry, but also try running some Startron (heavy mix) in the next couple tanks of fuel. Stuff seems to do a good job of getting rid of the ethanol gunk that builds up.
 
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