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I still cant get my truck to run right, it wont idle I got another carburetor for it , the fuel pump is fine I also changed the fuel filter inside of the pump, Ive changed the fuel filter checked all the vacuum lines for cracks changed them if they had any. I've done a compression check all cylinders checked out. I recently changed the thermostat because it was stuck, if the head is warped would the compression still be good in all of the cylinders, someone please help I am really getting frustrated, thanks

You've gone thru the fuel system, you've done a compression check. No air leaks. The only thing left is the ignition system. Points, plugs, wires, cap, rotor, points, condenser(if you have them), coil. Check all of those items to see if you have problems.

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Previous setup: 4.1 Buick V-6/TH 350
Current setup: 400 Small Block Chevy V-8/TH 350
9" ford rear end/short bed/blue
What do Water, Electricity and Humans have in common... They all travel the path of least resistance.

I have to agree with Blue on this one if you have done your other troubleshooting next would be your ignition system. Mine was running great for a couple of months then one day I was driving down the road and started losing power and backfiring and all.... come to find out the coil was done for so I bought a new one and installed and voila ran great for three days!! I knew I shouldnt have went the cheap route to do it but, after going back to the parts store and getting all the right things to do an ignition tune up you know plugs, wires, points all that good stuff. Well as soon as I did that It has been running like a bat outta hell ...................... Well not for the last six months I should say since I am stuck here in the desert!! Anyway just my two pennies!
Later
Husker

I checked the points, got new points also, and got a new condensor for it, brand new wires, new spark plugs even pulled them out and regaped them could it be the coil there is a relay or something on the outside of the coil that is the original equip. but dont you think if the coil went it wouldnt start at all. is there a way to test the coil.
let me know

Damn! It's been so long since i've had to test a coil. I'll have to think about that for a little bit. I'll get back to you.

_________________
Previous setup: 4.1 Buick V-6/TH 350
Current setup: 400 Small Block Chevy V-8/TH 350
9" ford rear end/short bed/blue
What do Water, Electricity and Humans have in common... They all travel the path of least resistance.

you can have a coil go bad and it will start and run. i had one go out in my camaro it would start and idle fine. but if you touched the throttle it would start back firing. i put it on a sun scope the coil would only put out 10,000 volts. so if you revved the motor it would start droping cylinders. i beleive the relay you are talking about is the resistor. that drops your voltage to the points so they don`t burn up as fast.

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don`t have the luv no more but I still like em.72 el camino,
00 & 06 silverado one 4x4, turboed vw sandrail,99 banshee, 06 raptor 700, 02 polaris trailblazer.

I tested the coil, in the shop book it says that the primary resistance is suppose to be 1.13 to 1.153 ohms and the secondary resistance is suppose to be 10.20 to 13.80 k-ohms and it was a little off and the book says to get a new one if it is out of this range, but I went to get a new and the new one was even lower than the old one what do I do

Take it back and bring your meter along. Test another one and see what it says. If it reads almost like the other new one, go ahead and get it. You might want to check your ballast resistor too. it could be weak and limiting the voltage too much to work correctly.

_________________
Previous setup: 4.1 Buick V-6/TH 350
Current setup: 400 Small Block Chevy V-8/TH 350
9" ford rear end/short bed/blue
What do Water, Electricity and Humans have in common... They all travel the path of least resistance.

Yeh I'm going to take it back tommorow, I checked the ballist resistor will it was hooked up to 12 volts it has the same reading as the voltage going to it is that good

The voltage going to the ballast resistor should be 12 volts and it should read 5 to 7 volts comming out of it. You should remove that wire from the coil to make sure you get an accurate reading. If it's less than 5 volts it's got problems. Normally they will fail and the engine will not stay running after you release the start switch. It could be grounding out somehow and it will interupt the current flow erraticly causing it to run lousy. They are protected by a ceramic housing to keep them isolated but they are open on the bottom side. Make sure that they are clean and nothing is causing a ground point. Im starting to think that you have a bad wire running from your points back to the coil. It that has a weak spot in it, it will cause it to run bad. It would be hard to tell unless you use a ohmmeter to check each wire individualy.

_________________
Previous setup: 4.1 Buick V-6/TH 350
Current setup: 400 Small Block Chevy V-8/TH 350
9" ford rear end/short bed/blue
What do Water, Electricity and Humans have in common... They all travel the path of least resistance.

The voltage coming out of the ballist resistor is the same as the voltage going in thats what I meant to say, you think I have a bad wire from the points to the coil, could I just bypass it and use a seperate wire.

Yes you can. But if any of the wire connections throughout the ignition system can make problems. Im thinking that wire because it out in the open and it would get messed with while doing ordinary stuff to the motor. If you cant figure out the problem, you might need to find a local gearhead to fix the problem. We can only do so much in finding out the problem without having the truck right in front of us. It's aggravating not being able to see the motor itself to fix the problem.

_________________
Previous setup: 4.1 Buick V-6/TH 350
Current setup: 400 Small Block Chevy V-8/TH 350
9" ford rear end/short bed/blue
What do Water, Electricity and Humans have in common... They all travel the path of least resistance.

Thanks man I'm going to check the wire and all that good stuff and if I have anymore problems I'll probably post it again. Again thanks, Shane.
If you think of anything else let me know.

If everything checks out, then we're back to square one. About that carb. Is it a Weber 32/36 DGEV or a stock Hitachi? If It's a Hitachi, it could be bad. It's been known to happen that some people have gotten bad rebuilds.

_________________
Previous setup: 4.1 Buick V-6/TH 350
Current setup: 400 Small Block Chevy V-8/TH 350
9" ford rear end/short bed/blue
What do Water, Electricity and Humans have in common... They all travel the path of least resistance.

the carb is a hitachi dch-340, this is the third one ive got, but every one I get still does the same thing so I dont think its the carb.

I had a similar problem just a while back. It turned out that I had a bad intake gasket. also check to connections on the wires leading to the carb.