Today I attempted to get some of the issues of my
newly aquired 55 3100, 235ci L6. Some of the questions
I had, that I was hoping someone here knew or
could point me where to find. I need dwell
for setting the points, and timing specs. The previous
owner did a full tune up, but it stumples at
full throttle sometimes and I want to check that
before digging further.
Also, if anyone could tell me the valve lash
for the intake and exhaust, I'd appreciate it.
Has a little bit of a valve tick, but not too bad.
Sometimes when you are shifting (3 on the tree)
it doesn't want to go in the upper half,
and rarely (happened to me twice in 50 in-city
miles) it will stick in between and refuse to
move. Then the only way to get it free is
to open the hood and push on the linkage.
Then it works fine again. I took a good look
at the linkage but couldn't see anything obviously
wrong. Has anyone ran into this before? Is there
an easy fix?
Some side notes. The brake pedal kept
sticking to the floor when you'd press
moderately hard, and you'd hear a loud
squealing sound everytime you moved it.
I ended up fixing that by simple bending the
lever shaft, was rubbing on the cab hole.
But the pedal engaged low to the floor
and it pulled decently to the right under
hard braking. I was planning on bleeding
the brakes today and doing brake work
later, but when I pulled the cap to the reservoir,
it had no fluid in it <8-0 Good thing I
didn't drive it much.... After topping off
the system and pumping the pedal for
a bit, it came back up. There is an obvious
leak at the M/C and there is a larger leak
at the FL wheel cylinder....I'll have to get
to those two items later. For now, it
brakes well, still pulls a little to the right,
but not nearly as bad.
The door's rattled something fierce, all the
rubber is missing on the outer doors and
the lining for the window's. I ran to Home
Depot and picked up some weather stripping,
and adjusted the door receiver position, and
that fixed almost all the rattles. I'll get the
real rubber for it later.
Also installed some mirrors, had none when I
got it. Just got the cheasy clamp-to-the-door-edge
ones for now....I'll have to find something more
permenant later. And I'm just about to head
out to install a tach I had laying around.....would
be nice to see what R's its turning on the highway,
although I'll be trying to avoid those.....I think its
geared only to 55 or 60mph tops.
I have heard mention that these originally had
"sealed" drive shafts, but whats in there is definitely
"normal". But it can't be the correct one because
the yoke that goes into the back of the tranny doesn't
look like its in far enough. Has a good 6 inches
of it showing. I think due to that the seal is leaking....
I figure I'll try to get a seal for now, but I guess I'll
have to get a different drive line if I want to run
it like this for any length of time.
Also trying to trace down the oil leaks....has some
pretty healthy ones. The valve cover is one for sure,
but I think the fuel pump is the really
big leak. I'll address those when I do the valve lash
next week.
Took it for a drive after addressing the major issues
and wow....what a difference. This I could get
used to driving. Starting to really have fun!
Ryan
rlangford@attbi.com
oletrucks is devoted to Chevy and GM trucks built between 1941 and 1959
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