Pickup truck will not start

ALAMUCHA2

MEMBER
1981 DODGE RAM
3.7L
6 CYL
2WD
MANUAL
162,000 MILES

I can start my truck if I put gasoline into the carburetor or remove the inlet valve and unstick the valve. Once it starts I can turn it off then restart time and again. If it sits for an hour or so without being run then I have to go through one of the above processes again to start it. The rebuilt carburetor is about eight months old. I had the same problem with the last carburetor that was on it.

1 Reply

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
33,727 POSTS

The next time this happens, try to keep it in the no-start condition. Pop the air filter cover off, then work the throttle by hand to see if you are getting a nice strong squirt of fuel. If you are not, the fuel is disappearing out of the float bowl. One place to look is for leaking plugs under the base of the carburetor, but you would typically just have a long crank time, then a lot of black smoke from the tail pipe. This also is not likely to happen to two carburetors in a row.

Remove the rubber vent hose from the top of the carburetor, then plug that port. If that solves the problem of the disappearing gas, there was a service bulletin to add a check valve to that hose. Hot fuel would vaporize and go into the charcoal canister.

Also, check for the presence of the white, hard-board heat shield under the base of the carburetor. That is there to prevent this problem.