71FJ40 Chevota

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

before you get all jiggy with the driveshaft... let me go measure the one that came off mine (mini truck rear, center output).... I'm certain we could make a deal on that since there's really nothing Toyota built left underneath mine.
 
My slow build will be a bit slower for a while, between my wedding and emergency surgery for my puppy funds are tight.
I did however score a true 71 front axle to build over the next year or so. Thanks @SuperBuickGuy!
The goal will be soa, c&t, with mini truck or 60 series disks... But that saga will start next year

Today's adventure was focused on an off idle stumble.
I know I have a 350sbc, but that's about it
Bought a new 580cfm QFT carb last year and got good idle and once the main circuit kicks in, it runs good

Fiddled with the HEI dist.
Plugged the vac advance (ported)
Revved the engine to 3000 and set total mech adv to 36
Checked at idle and my initial was nearly 20!
When I hooked the vac advance back up the stumble was better, but not gone.

The next step will be to buy a crane HEI advance kit with springs and adjustable vac advance.
My hope is to set the timing curve then look at the carb tuning

Btw, I checked vacuum, 22" at idle
Increased the accelerator pump nozzle to 35 from 28, helped a bit more and fiddled with different pump cams with little effect

Any ideas are welcome
 
I've been fooling around with this too. I'm waiting on a new timing light, but I have had a poor quality idle and a rich running condition since I bought the truck. I rebuild the quadrajet on my 283 right after I bought it, but it still has never been right.

I'm waiting on a new timing light to show up, since my hand-me-down from my dad broke this week. That said, turns out my HEI hadn't been clamped in for the past 3 years so that could have something to do with it! Seems like 283's want about 8-12 degrees advance timing (factory recommended is 4). Not sure if this is close for a 350, or not. I'm going to shoot for 10 with the vac advance plugged and see where that gets me at the high end.

I feel your pain on the wedding! Mine is in August. Between that and fixing up the house we just bought, not a lot left over for the cruiser!

Hope the dog is ok!
 
timing on a stock sbc is roughly 16* static (at idle), and 38* all in (centrifugal advance plus vacuum advance). What I've found when it wants less or has erratic idle thus causing you to back it off is worn weight springs.
 
Thanks @RWB and @SBG
I've been doing some research and seems like adjusting weights and springs to get 14-18 initial and 32-38 at 2500-3000 plus vac advance is the recipe.

Warn springs seems to fit my symptoms
 
Not tech related:
The girlfriend (aka fiancé, aka future wife) drove the '40 today
Well she backed it out of the driveway and turned it around... I think it helped my case for cruiser funding... She seemed to enjoy the exercise and has a noticeable cruiser grin
 
Checked out my distributor today:
initial timing =16
total @ 3200 34 (with vac plugged)
ported vac advance

My vac advance seems to work, I pulled vac on it with a syringe and vac gage, it held steady and actuated the distributor cam

Cap and rotor have been replaced

Wires are in pretty bad shape

My distributor weights have seen better days, and there is about .050" vertical play in the rotor

My question is, can it be the distributor that's causing the problem?

Obviously I need wires and a dizzy, just wondering what else could be causing my problem. (Don't want to get my hopes up)
ImageUploadedByIH8MUD Forum1436750131.701594.webp

ImageUploadedByIH8MUD Forum1436750154.392970.webp


Also, I took the top off
ImageUploadedByIH8MUD Forum1436750217.467298.webp

I like it way better
 
yes, mr. gasket makes a rebuild kit for that... costs ~ $5.00. Use the lightest - meaning the earliest advance springs in the kit along with putting the new plastic bushings over the very worn pins.

and the picture you have there will help you, there is no "up" or "down" marked on the new center support in the kit.
 
Parts arrived.
Went for a new petronix HEI dizzy, by the time I bought a new cap, coil, rebuild kit to take out the play and the adjustment kit, I was over halfway on price.

The petronix unit comes with an adjustable vac canister and a spring kit for the mech advance.

Set the initial timing to 10 degrees to start.

The engine runs better, I still have a slight off idle bog that I'll check out tomorrow. I bought some idle air bleeds, power valves and accelerator pump nozzles to do some carb tuning.

It's sure nice to be back wrenching, someday I'll be driving :steer:

Only one pic today, just playing with the windshield down...
 
Last edited:
Oh I almost forgot...

The PO had installed the dizzy without using a gasket, this caused 2 issues

1) oil leaking on the intake.....grrrr
2) when the clamp was tightened after setting timing, the gear was pushing into the camshaft. This made the mechanical advance sticky and pushed the rotor into the cap.... Super grrr

ImageUploadedByIH8MUD Forum1440899008.864733.webp
 
you wouldn't believe how common it is that people don't use the gasket.... you're making good progress, I expect you'll be driving by soon with it ;) (presuming you didn't float away or get blown to Canada today)
 
Thanks, super windy out here.
I totally ruined one of those pop up awnings today.

Thought it would be nice to have some rain cover, but the wind decided to lift it up and bash it in the ground.

The new wife wasn't happy :)
 
congratulations on the new wife, is this a starter one or a keeper? ;)

You know, being philosophical, destroying an awning as your first "made her mad" is a pretty good first with all things considered.
 
@sbg this ones the keeper :)

@Alz Toy: thanks for the tip, that's on the list to address next. If I can't source another mini truck or fj60 front shaft, I'll have to get out the grinder
 
Adjusted the timing curve today. I'm still trying to get rid of an off idle stumble. It's gone from a nasty bog that kills the engine (about 1200rpm) to a hesitation. Here's the timing adjustments made:
The petronix dizzy comes with bronze, silver and natural color springs to change the mech advance.
Stock is silver with 24deg at 6000 rpm, that's a little slow for me, I'll rarely be over 3500.
The bronze springs kick in at 500 rpm, to low. So I went with one bronze and one silver.
I don't get any mech advance at idle, and I assume I get 24 at around 3000 rpm.
My timing light went kaput after I set the initial timing.... So more to come there.
I'm going to iterate and do some carb tuning next.
 
Next iteration was carb tuning.
The spec sheet on the qft carb said it had #70 idle air bleeds, the carb I have is set with #73.
Since I have this off idle bog, and one theory is that I don't have enough fuel just off idle, I figured I'd go back to the #70 idle air bleeds. Smaller bleeds should restrict air a bit more and fatten up the idle mixture circuit.

I then had to re-tune the idle mixture screws, so I put them at 1.5 turns out, warmed up the engine and hooked up my vac gage to manifold.

I ended at 3/4 turn out for max vac at idle.
The bog is almost gone now. I still don't have a nice linear throttle response, at around 1600 rpm, if I just ease into the throttle the rpm doesn't increase.

I'm going to try increasing the accelerator pump nozzle again to see if that helps. If not, I'll try more initial timing, then maybe look into main jets.
 
Back
Top Bottom