83 Chevy K10- New Guy in Chicago Area

[snyousef]

A couple of months ago I traded my 79 camaro for this lifted, decently clean 83 K10. Has a 350/700R4 drivetrain, 4" RC lift, 35x12.5x15 Goodyears on MT Classic II wheels, fiberglass cowl hood, brush guard, 10 bolt corp front, 12 bolt rear, differential rock guards, and a couple of other accessories.

It treated me good at first, actually drove it back over 50 miles to my place. Then I started having some issues.

First, I lost all 6 studs one day on the front left tire. Now I know it currently still needs an alignment but to this day its a mystery to me how they all snapped off. Only thing I can think of is that they were loose, or some were missing to begin with but I don't recall seeing that.

So after I took care of that, I started having a few problems after the weather dropped below zero for a few days in a row. First the battery took a crap, now it seems like I may have bad grounds since when I try to jump the battery the power is intermittent and I soon as I crank the starter sounds like it isn't getting enough power it's faint and doesn't really crank. then after a while and playing with the jumper cables I can get it to crank pretty good a couple times but then need to adjust again. Then the jumper cables get really hot after trying to crank quite a bit. So I ended up replacing the battery but I'm still having starting issues.

After replacing the battery it still just cranked and cranked until I poured some gasoline down the carb. So I figured that was probably because it sat for a while but even after that every time I tried to start it, the battery would be dead again (and it would take forever to get it to crank right) and I'd need to dump gas into the carb before starting. I don't have much experience with carbs, especially in the winter. So I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be doing to prevent these issues? It also began sputtering under heavy load and dieing out after it got really cold out during driving, I'm guessing I may need to richen up my carb? One thing to note is the choke is not active, so I think that may be adding to my cold start troubles.

Pic below (I'll get some better ones to share this weekend). Any feedback and input is appreciated! Happy to be part of this community.

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[bucket]

Howdy!

Do you have a Quadrajet carb? They are known to leak off overnight causing an extended crank time. A clear plastic type fuel filter will let you see what the fuel pump is doing on a cold start too.

 

[snyousef]

I'll have to check on the carb, I know its an edelbrock. I'll check and get back to you.

I do actually have a clear fuel filter, on a cold start there is fuel sitting in it. Around half fill probably a little more, is that normal?

 

[89Suburban]

Maybe your choke is not working correctly. Welcome aboard.

 

[Stroked]

Welcome to GMSB! That's a pretty sweet lookin truck!

 

[Mr Clean]

Maybe your choke is not working correctly. Welcome aboard.

He said his choke wasn't working little buddy.

from N.E. Texas!

Have you checked for vacuum leaks? If your choke isn't working correct, the truck is going to be very hard to start in the kinda cold y'all are getting. I'm going to guess it is your carb. I would replace both the battery cables, and see if that helps with the cranking.

 

[chevyk10]

May be easiest to fix the choke. If it's an Eldebrock they usually work pretty well. Check and make sure you have power to the choke or you can hook up a manual choke cable. I hate those bit they do work. Maybe the starter is drawing more juice than it should?


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[Old77]

 

[snyousef]

Thanks for the welcomes guys!!!


chevyk10, I think you may be correct. I had it running thursday for about 30 mins, even came back an hour later started it and moved it. Came back friday after work and a after a few cranks better lost juice and I couldn't get it to start. Starter just starters faintly clicking and making a weird noise, maybe my starter is shot. It shouldn't be killing my battery like that IMO.

Yes, I do need to get a choke on there I'm sure thats causing most of the cold start issue but not being able to crank without killing the battery and spending half hour trying to get a good jump on it till it cranks is really bothering me.

 

[bucket]

They cost a bit more, but the later starters ('95 I think was the first year) are a nice upgrade. They are smaller, lighter, and supposedly take less power to work them. You do need to use shorter bolts with them though.

 

[chevyk10]

I would suggest going through summit or jegs and buying a mini starter. They are very light powerful and not tremendously expensive. Plus gives you a lot more room


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[bucket]

I would suggest going through summit or jegs and buying a mini starter. They are very light powerful and not tremendously expensive. Plus gives you a lot more room


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I tend to stay away from mini starters, but honestly it's just because the early ones left a bad taste in my mouth. I had a couple fail early and one of them put the main body closer to the header than a giant stock starter from the early 70's. I know they are better now though.

 

[chevyk10]

We use them on the race car and haven't really had any problems so I stuck one on my k10


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[HotRodPC]

They cost a bit more, but the later starters ('95 I think was the first year) are a nice upgrade. They are smaller, lighter, and supposedly take less power to work them. You do need to use shorter bolts with them though.

I think you're correct and it was 95 for the first year of the gear reducted starter.

 

[snyousef]

From what I can see the carb is completely missing the choke and it doesnt seem to hold fuel overnight. Should I just plan on buying a new carb? Not sure if its worth messing with this old one, it's an edelbrock.

Sounds like I need to replace the battery cables and the starter. I looked at the mini hitorque ones and looks attractive at both price and functionality. For the battery cables, any special ones I should be looking at?