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1982 F150 Vacuum Leak Help


CoughlinJ
03-12-2008, 03:41 PM
Hey all,
I've been having a problem with an old '82 Ford F150 I picked up. When I start the truck I either get a real rough idle but no stalls or a real high idle. I just bought the truck so I'm trying to make sense of the ups and downs, but would this be indicitive of a vacuum leak or a carb problem? I tried cleaning out the carb with some of the Gunk cleaner, but it only seemed to drop the idle speed when I sprayed it in and it didn't help the overall performance. I can't see any kind of loose/severed/broken hoses, so I'm at a loss. Hopefully AF can help me pull out another miracle with this old beauty.

rockwood84
03-18-2008, 11:27 PM
does it have the automatic choke? as these were hell to get set right.

Davescort97
03-19-2008, 12:19 AM
I'd soak it in cleaner, then blow all the passages with compressed air. Then put a kit in it and reset the float level, fast idle cam and the automatic choke. Don't be intimidated by the number of parts in a carb kit. The only moving parts are the needle and seat on the float, idle mixture screws and the choke and fast idle setttings. Basically, any carb has just 2 major parts. The body which contains the float chamber and the horn. I think you can get a kit for less than $40 and a gallon of soak will run about $15. Then you always have it if you want to do another carb job. Most of the time carb problems occur because the small passages in them get obstructed. Carb spray is useless for the internal passages. I would try a tank of gas that is 10% ethanol to see if the alcohol clears out any of the passages. The down side of this is that if the vehicle has never been run on ehtanol 10% it can break down varnish deposits in the fuel system and possibly plug up the filter.
Yeah. Put a kit into it. I think a new carb runs about $385. Carbs do wear out. The shaft to the throttle plate can get so worn that the carb won't idle down. If the idle speed can't be adjusted down, this is usually the problem.
For $50 you should be able to get a carb at the boneyard. Maybe this would be the way to go if you don't want to go the other route. All the best. Dave

ken_man_1
03-29-2008, 11:56 AM
Just my 2 cents here. I had an 82 Bronco I bought in Texas. It had a 302, 2barrel, standard federal emissions. It had a rough idle, and I took it to a shop to have all of the vacuum stuff replaced. $350 later, I had all new rubber, tee's, valves, the whole 9 yards. The problem still existed. I drove it that way for a year, then decided to take it where we had emissions, and it failed miserably. Wound up replacing the EGR Valve, and it just barely passed emissions. Then the rough idle turned into stalling at idle. Replaced the intake manifold and the problem was cured. It purred like a kitten!

I guess if you're going to do anything, I would look into the intake manifold since the truck is soooooo old. Pull it and clean out all of the passages - including the EGR. In retrospect, I should have done the same thing instead of getting a new one.

I have a friend that had an '83 with the same problem. I told him what I did, and he just replaced the intake and carb with Edelbrock Performer stuff, and it ran excellent. Sounded better, too. Autozone had the stuff - $250 for everything.

Good luck, hope that the advice helps!

CoughlinJ
04-04-2008, 04:35 PM
Hey man, thanks for the advice. A good thing I checked back here too, because it turns out I need a new exhaust manifold, so I guess I'll take care of that at the same time. Thanks dude.

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