She's got the shakes, need help locating the cause.

[Turt13]

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Weld racing rims from 96. So far this one is the only cleaned up. Took a bit.

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if you look closely you can see my hood latch cable. It broke on us, my handy work again. Kinda like it there anyways.

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found another exhaust leak. Picture here is #4 down the line, the collector gasket, all aluminum. Flanges were warped to hell, but a ball peen and claw hammer helped. I think. Bolts welded to header side, was gonna do it better but that caused me to either have to drop the whole header (which I just got back on) or back end of the exhaust. I haven't started it yet after the little persuasion. Had to put some high heat jb weld on, and cure, where the pipes join, leak #3 down the line. #2 was header gaskets, #1 was where those plugs are now...I'll find a picture of what was in those holes before. Each one I fix, the next one down the line gets worse. Metal is so rusty I don't think welding is a option for most of it. Ill Blow through, and welder is...that's right, 6 hrs away.

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See that shiny spot on the shaft? Is it supposed to be shiny?

 

[Grit dog]

Yes it is.

 

[Turt13]

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I know, a Good pressure wash on the undercarriage is far over due and would do wonders for the truck. But saving my quarters as much as possible. Pressure washer that's available...well father in law can't get it to work. Asked me to help. Fixed his trimmer, hardly had to touch it and got it to fire. He couldn't get it started and hasn't trimmed his yard in TWO YEARS.
I'll help get the washer working, but it'll be more for me then him.

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when we got this truck we couldn't see a bit of blue. Notice the exhaust..just cut the lines and folded empty over.

 

[Turt13]

The dealy in the thermostat housing is called a "thermostatic vacuum switch'' ,or TVS , and was connected to the EFE valve in the passenger side exhaust and the original "thermostatic" air cleaner.

So do I need those wires and thing thats not hooked up to anything? I mean obviously it isn't doing anything. Just didn't know what its wired to and what truck might do with it unplugged. But all you said is forgin to me, I've never seen or touched a factory set up on an old Chevy. I get the jist though: unnecessary trinkits.

 

[Ricko1966]

The dealy in the thermostat housing is called a "thermostatic vacuum switch'' ,or TVS , and was connected to the EFE valve in the passenger side exhaust and the original "thermostatic" air cleaner.

His 3.15 today post.Right under the Dick Post lol. 2nd pic down if you blow it up a little there is something with a barbed end and 2 wires attached in between the vroom vroom go fast carb and the upper hose.I cannot identify it.I believe that's what he'd talking about.

 

[Turt13]

His 3.15 today post.Right under the Dick Post lol. 2nd pic down if you blow it up a little there is something with a barbed end and 2 wires attached in between the vroom vroom go fast carb and the upper hose.I cannot identify it.I believe that's what he'd talking about.

Yes, that's it.

 

[Rusty Nail]

Ohh I see. Thats the smog pump plug no?

Yeah
Dude that tiny assed air cleaner is really sucking the power out of your truck in a big mother way.

 

[Rusty Nail]

The longer you look at these pics the worse it gets.

looks like fun to me?

 

[80BrownK10]

Ok, so here's what she is:
81k20 4x4
350 w/ 1406 eldelbrock carb, some off brand or homemade headers, t400, np208 case

Here's what she's doing:
Starts right up, usually. If not, she will with a little throttle.
She's got a rough-ish idle. Can't tell if it's the idle for sure though, motor might just be shaking.
She will drop idle when put into gear, not without a large metallic clank when shifting from park to reverse, bigger clank when going from r-n-d, or d-n-r.
When put into gear, the shake gets worse. When under load, she's at the worst. We have to park on a hill, and to leave for work my lady has to put it in reverse, up the hill, and Vickie (truck) does not like it, at all. once in a while if she's not warm she will try dying.
Other times under load, like trying to speed up, especially on an incline, and at speeds of >45mph, don't know much about higher speeds, she just doesn't want to go and you can feel her 'shaking' all the way through the janky ass seat, floor boards, etc.
When deceleration is occurring, seems to be absent. If you have enough momentum, like before a hill or something, she doesn't do it as bad. She just doesnt have any umph.

Here's what has been done to try and help:
Plug wires were laying all over each other, used zip-ties to make spacers.
Cleaned up plugs I could get to at the time without the right tools, about 4-5/8. They were black and carboned. Couple had a little white with mostly black, and one was oily. They were bad. Can't afford decent new ones, current ones are auto lite cheapos, put in less then 3k miles ago.
Fuel filter- replaced last week, helped for the drive home from the parts store, kinda. It was also really bad, had what looked like sand, and black specs from the hose I'm assuming all over it.
Air filter- was getting pretty dark, replaced 2-3 weeks ago. At this time, iirc, it was after a friend helped adjust the carb, and oil leaks on the covers were being addressed. Vickie would screrch tires with little effort, and we didn't run her hard. Lasted for about a day. Air filter still getting dark from header leak I'm sure
Header gaskets- got one replaced today, the one I took off was blown out every cylinder. Other is planned to be done tomorrow. I believe this was the cause of my new air filter already getting crummy. And as well as the old. Hell, on the other side we have been missing a header bolt for a month or so that I know of.
1 week ago, Tested for vacuum leaks with carb cleaner and gauge, ,found two big holes in the hard line to the vacuum mod. On tyranny. Fixed that, temporary. Cleaned out line, patched it. This is when she started really acting up. Retested for leaks, couldn't determine any leaks anywhere.
Running strictly 91 w/o ethanol. Had sat this winter with 10% ethanol for a bit. Ran some type lucas cleaner through it when changed fuel filter. Have yet to test psi of fuel.
Found brace for t-case to motor was missing bolt on motor, planned to be fixed.
Timming adjusted with vacuum gauge, And rotation of cap. advanced a little and vacuum went to be 14-15 hgs. From 11 hg. Had to up idle speed to up vacuum as well. Adjust carb a bit, believe she's sitting at 15-16, has the ever so slightest flicker in the needle. Can hardly tell. This is at 6,800 ft elevation, btw.
With e brake on and in neutral, driveshaft moves about 1/4 rotation between back and forth, with clanking comming from t case. U joints seem to be decent shape.
Carb seems to be a little weird, don't know if the secondaries are opening. Could just be a symptom too, thinking they ain't when something v else is robbing the power and they are working. Idk.
She also has a chirping whistleyy sound when you press the throttle, trying g to locate the source of it.
Took cap off couple days ago, missing gasket at the bottom, I replaced it about 3.5-4k miles ago, looked in good shape, no cracks, no black trails, fireing order checked and double checked and it's right, 99% sure of that.


Could the violent shaking and motor movement be as simple as plugs, and header gasket?
Could the carb have gotten gummed up from the exhaust leak and sitting with ethanol fuel? I plan on taking it off and rebuilding it, or at least cleaning it up. Can't afford a kit atm, can the gaskets be reused until I can? The carb has been said to be brand new when I got the truck about 4k miles ago.
Harmonic ballencer had a hair line short tear in it, is that a possible culprit?
Could it be trajny/transfer case related? Motor seems pretty close to being in good running condition.
What about the trimming chain? Who knows when it was replaced, if ever, I haven't checked for play in it yet.
I've done plenty to this truck, and I'm frustrated because she has recently ran great, and then all of a sudden it seems like, trash. Idk what direction to go in at this point, and don't have much funds to keep throwing at things that honestly seem to help for a day, and then overall she gets worse. Next few days she won't have to move much, so I really hope to figure this out. She shakes at times so bad that I would like to park her till I figure it out. But atm, she's my only daily. She went from a rare occasion when she needed to be drove but started every week, last resort vehicle to the only daily. I can't afford to lose this one too, or any expensive repairs. Any help or insight will be appreciated, like I said I'm at a loss rn. Ill see if I can't get a video or two to show what's she's doing.

First thought is that it sounds like classic transmission failure. But also sounds like you have many other problems as well from tune up needed, burning oil, bad gaskets etc. Don't run 91 octane unless your doing it to get non E fuel. But your wasteing your money if you can buy 87 octane non E fuel cause I doubt you have a high compression motor.

 

[Turt13]

First thought is that it sounds like classic transmission failure. But also sounds like you have many other problems as well from tune up needed, burning oil, bad gaskets etc. Don't run 91 octane unless your doing it to get non E fuel. But your wasteing your money if you can buy 87 octane non E fuel cause I doubt you have a high compression motor.

It's for the non e. Regardless it gets was better fuel mileage and more power with 9!. Working on the data side of that to prove it.
Its had a recent tune up, bout to re-do plugs to. Gonna recheck my wires tomorrow.
Tranny is healthy, she doesn't slip on kickdown anymore (dont think it was slipping, thinking that was more of a tune issue) annnnnddddd shifts quick and I would say hard, but I think that's the wrong word.
Motors health is yet to be determined, but aside a hard miss (which I think I found why), and a little walking timing, she runs like a top. No knocks, no chucks, no excessive train noise. Most of what I hearing is the damn cheap headers and botched exhaust job. Getting better though.
She doesn't burn oil, smoke stopped when I fixed the vacuum leak to the tranny. It does leaks a little bit, working on finding where exactly. Everything is so dirty i gotta clean off 20 years of dirt and grime before I can even tell what's going on. Front 1/4 and top drivers side is pretty well cleaned up without any leaks.
U joints and the pressure in my diff case is the cause for the driveline issues I believe. Well see what u joins do on Saturday.

 

[Turt13]

I’m saying bad u joint or loose mount but I’m in the boat of way too long didn’t read. I always say don’t tell me a story, tell me what’s wrong. So we can fix it and move on.

The clunk when shifting from one direction to another makes me think it’s somewhere IN or NEAR the driveline. Could be bad angles, loose transfer case or bad joints. Take pics of those things if you can.

Definitely lose t case. Working on figuring how to get a broken bolt out of the front mount point's hole.
U joints are trashed. New ones coming.[/QUOTE]

 

[Rusty Nail]

Sounds like it's downhill from here but you better get the water out of the front differential ... it's in your own best interest.

 

[Bextreme04]

It's for the non e. Regardless it gets was better fuel mileage and more power with 9!. Working on the data side of that to prove it.
Its had a recent tune up, bout to re-do plugs to. Gonna recheck my wires tomorrow.
Tranny is healthy, she doesn't slip on kickdown anymore (dont think it was slipping, thinking that was more of a tune issue) annnnnddddd shifts quick and I would say hard, but I think that's the wrong word.
Motors health is yet to be determined, but aside a hard miss (which I think I found why), and a little walking timing, she runs like a top. No knocks, no chucks, no excessive train noise. Most of what I hearing is the damn cheap headers and botched exhaust job. Getting better though.
She doesn't burn oil, smoke stopped when I fixed the vacuum leak to the tranny. It does leaks a little bit, working on finding where exactly. Everything is so dirty i gotta clean off 20 years of dirt and grime before I can even tell what's going on. Front 1/4 and top drivers side is pretty well cleaned up without any leaks.
U joints and the pressure in my diff case is the cause for the driveline issues I believe. Well see what u joins do on Saturday.

91 octane does not give you more power or better mileage. Technically the higher octane the fuel, the lower the energy density. The octane rating is a fuels resistance to detonation and is achieved by diluting the fuel with additives that do not contribute to the specific energy of the fuel.

You should always run the lowest octane rating that your engine is capable of running. A higher octane fuel allows a high performance engine to be more efficient(high compression, more advanced timing) without detonating and destroying the engine, but it will not give any benefit to a standard engine and will actually provide less power for a given fuel volume consumed.

 

[Turt13]

91 octane does not give you more power or better mileage. Technically the higher octane the fuel, the lower the energy density. The octane rating is a fuels resistance to detonation and is achieved by diluting the fuel with additives that do not contribute to the specific energy of the fuel.

You should always run the lowest octane rating that your engine is capable of running. A higher octane fuel allows a high performance engine to be more efficient(high compression, more advanced timing) without detonating and destroying the engine, but it will not give any benefit to a standard engine and will actually provide less power for a given fuel volume consumed.

Science says one thing, but I beg to differ.
If the motor runs better and uses less gas then with e-gas, or anything lower, then why wouldn't run high octane.
Burns cleaner to, don't it?
I can tell a difference on my non high performance motor, it does give benefits as far as I can tell, to everything I've owned.

My old school bmw seemed to be the same, I never ever put low octane unless I had to, and would drive around on e to find non ethanol. E85= oh 200 miles on a tank at most,91 clear I could get 400-450 miles out of a tank. And ran way better. But that's what she was tuned on from stock so..
I haven't crunched the numbers yet for the truck but when I do ill post results.
Data is key and I can tell difference between octane. And different gas stations too sometimes if they have lower quality or watered down gas then they post.
Any lower octane has always diminished mpg as well as ethanol(more contributing then the octane rating) in any of my vehicles I've ever owned, talk in 1990s and before.
If it didn't give any benefit to my non high performance ****, I wouldn't care what gas.
Be that as it may, we can disagree, I'm not saying your wrong I'm just saying what I have felt and seen and logged in my experience is different.
Dumb question:
if it has more octane (measurement of the power potential in the fuel, right? )And no ethanol, (which density wise alone causes problems as far as mixing air gas and ethanol into the right mix per area) then couldn't you lean out your mix, get the same power with less fuel?

 

[Turt13]

Sounds like it's downhill from here but you better get the water out of the front differential ... it's in your own best interest.

Your right.
Now the leaks have been plugged, I feel more comfortable with changing fluids.
Water, dirt, well used oil...who knows how much is in there. been on the to do list for a bit.
T case needs atf needs changed to,plus it's low. . It spit out this little plastic piece when I pulled the drain plug checking it the other day. Wonder what else i can find in the diffs and case.
It's like a treasure hunt.
But instead of treasure,
It's trash, and ****, and booby traps.