Found a Project; have some questions.

[ByronRACE]

Although a google search for "Brownie Box" without safesearch on was very entertaining, it didn't teach me anything about transmission overdrive units.

A few more careful searches found some information, but not a lot. Can someone educate me on which units I should be looking at as potential solutions? I like the idea of old and simple; especially if it has affordable in there somewhere.

I though the 700R4 was a strong transmission. I've seen my brother repeatedly move a 67 Camaro down the 1/4 mile in under 11 seconds with one; transbrake launches as well. It has survived. It's an aftermarket $2500.00 variety, but that's not out of the question.

Whatever I pick, I'd like it to be usable when/if I end up going to a 4BT.

Byron

[jtscout80]

Originally Posted by ByronRACE

Although a google search for "Brownie Box" without safesearch on was very entertaining, it didn't teach me anything about transmission overdrive units.

A few more careful searches found some information, but not a lot. Can someone educate me on which units I should be looking at as potential solutions? I like the idea of old and simple; especially if it has affordable in there somewhere.



Byron

Here is a good place to start all about the Spicer 5831 aux trans

A safer search string might be "auxiliary transmission"

[ByronRACE]

After researching what is involved and how it's packaged, it seems like the most cost effective choice will be to wait for a used gearvendors. There's one for sale right now too far away from me to be of interest...dead motorhome with said part for $1000.00. If one of those comes up local, I'll buy it.

[ByronRACE]

Can any one tell me what steering column is in a MS1510 chassis Kurbmaster like mine? The turn signal bits are all broken and I'd like to get a center cap for the wheel if possible.

Byron

[ByronRACE]

In order as if you' were looking at the engine from the front.




What do you guys make of this? These plugs were put in, I tuned the carb using the vacuum method and it idled and free rev'd great with no smoke and no issues. I then drove it around the block and it acted lean and it started to misfire so I limped it home and pulled the plugs to take a look. I've never seen such a variation in color before. Is this normal for a IH 392? I have a holley 4010 Carb and just rebuilt it.

1 and 8 look too rich. 2 and 7 look too lean. The rest look pretty close to me.

Why is the mixture distribution so weird? By the looks of this it might be misfiring because 1 and 7 are too lean. If I richen it then 2 and 8 are going to be fouling and the middle 4 won't be as good as they are now. I don't get it.

Other then converting to multiport EFI, does anyone have any advice?

B

[ByronRACE]

Here's what I've done so far.

New cap, rotor, wires...since they were pretty old and crusty. And, a set of new plugs just because. Using the timing light, I verified I have spark on all 8 wires.

In the process of doing this, I came to realize that the previous owner had the #1 wire on the #6 terminal and had the whole cap wired such that the order was right but the cap was actually 180deg, and that made the numbering confusing.

So, I pulled the distributor and re-stabbed it 180deg from where it was so the cap numbering jived. I don't expect that to do a damn thing, but I thought I'd mention it.

So, starting from a clean slate, I fired it up and it ran and idled, but it still felt like it had a miss. I dropped the idle down to 700 and set the timing to zero using the #8 wire as reference and that worked fine. It wasn't very far off; apparently I got lucky.

After all that, the truck runs exactly like it did before...like crap. I'm beginning to believe that I need to pull the carb apart again. When I richen the idle bleeds a ton, the misfire smooths out, so perhaps it's just really lean and misfiring on the leanest cylinders. I just rebuilt this carb, and it ran pretty good right afterward, but now it's gone to hell so maybe some junk is clogging a jet or something. I don't see how, but that's all I can think of. Float levels are good. Venturi passages are good. I've shot fuel backwards through the jets. Needle/seat looks good and works correctly. Float level is set right. I'm baffled.

When you drive the step van with the doghouse and air cleaner off and start opening the throttle, everything is normal at idle and just off idle, but slightly beyond that as you crack open the throttle you can hear the suction of the venturis increase and the engine hesitates and stumbles a bit..then it cleans up but has no power and acts like it doesn't want to take the fuel.

If you open the throttle more, it'll stumbe/starve a bit then accelerate a little in the middle travel somewhere, but once you go beyond it it's like someone shut the fuel off completely. It seems to coincide with the vacuum secondaries opening. As soon as they open, the engine dies. If you let go of the throttle, it starts running again. I see no black smoke out of the exhaust during this.

The squirters work when you open the throttle a little you can see them squirt.

It has an electric fuel pump and I've run it into a bottle. It'll fill a gallon jug in about 2 minutes and this starvation happens before the float bowls could have gone empty so I don't think it's a supply problem.

It seems to me the carb died on its maiden voyage after the rebuild. I guess that's the next thing to do...take it off and tear it apart again.

That is, unless someone else has any suggestions.

Thanks for any help,

Byron

[ruderunner]

You didn't mention it but jave the vac advance disconnected when setting timing. For the raod test I'd leave it disconnected as well, see if things work right then connect and set up the vac advance (ported vac, not manifold vac)

Check closely for vacuum leaks around and under the intake, the manifold to head connections seem to be common and I've seen rusted out welch plugs under the intake (even cracked intakes on the underside)

If you have an egr valve, disconnect it for the time being just to eliminate a variable.

[ByronRACE]

I've looked around under the intake with my borescope camera and not seen anything scary, but that doesn't mean I don't have a leak there somewhere...good point.

I will order some intake gaskets and pull the intake I guess. It doesn't look like it's come off in 10 years, so it's probably a good idea to do that anyway. A leaky intake in the corners could certainly explain the weird plug color.

I did spray WD40 around and it does not change the idle.

I'll pull the carb top off again as well and take a look. It's possible some gunk in the lines between the newly installed filter and the bowls has found its way into the jets.

I set the timing with the vacuum advance connected. I've never inspected the advance springs and weights either...I'll add that to the list. And, I've never actually verified that the centrifugal nor vacuum advance works. For all I know, I could have no advance at all. What kind of total advance should this engine be running? Base is zero; what is total?

Please educate me about the difference between "ported vac" and "manifold vac". I'm not sure I know the difference.

Plenty of things to check.

B

[ByronRACE]

I just read about ported vac vs manifold vac.

I was unaware that there was a difference between the ports at the base of the carb, but by (dumb) luck I believe I picked the one that is labeled "timed spark" in the holley 4010 manual, so it appears this is ported vacuum. I will double check this; I could have plugged it into the EGR port since I thought they were equivalent.

http://www.edgesz28.com/edgesz28/images/4010-4.pdf

[Eric VanBuren]

If you are going to pull the intake you want to change the valley pan gasket and the PCV grommet while you are there. You need to get the PCV grommet from one of the Light Line dealers but they have the right one that seals with the right PCV valve properly.