LUVTruck.com

Hello everyone, nice to see a larger forum for these trucks.

I just picked up a 79 4x4 for a workhorse truck for $300. The owner sold it to me cheap because it doesn't run worth a damn.

I did a compression check prior to purchasing and although a bit low, all were even and within spec.

Now here is the story from the old owner (not sure if he's trustworthy or not): He said the fuel pump went bad sometime last year. He reinstalled an electronic inline pump (Mr. Gasket) up near the motor. Now the engine is running extremely rich. It won't idle at all under normal circumstances. He installed an aftermarket mechanical choke at some point during last winter and when you pull the choke the engine will idle although rough. With the choke on the engine will only idle but it breaks up if you give it gas. With the choke off it won't idle but it revs freely with little signs of backfiring on decel (probably still a bit rich).

The old owner got frustrated and sold it to me for cheap and here I am getting frustrated lol.

I reinstalled the new fuel pump down by the gas tank (thinking it was too close to the carb and had too much pressure or something) which didn't really change anything.

After that I pulled off the air cleaner and started poking around. I noticed 3 vacuum lines were open and I'm not too certain about the manual choke setup. I plugged the three lines but didn't notice any changes in the idle.

I would ultimately like get this thing back to factory running condition with all necessary components to make it have optimum gas mileage. Below is a few pictures of my carb and spark plugs. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks

Float is even with the dot when viewed at eye level


Screw in yellow is backed out fairly far, old owner might have messed with all of the adjustments thinking he could get it to work that way. Aftermarket choke on the left, the old choke diaphragm is just hanging out but still plugged in. The other things in red are the three lines that are open to the air as well as the one that is capped off.


Other side of carb


Black plugs after only 20 minutes of testing (they are new)


Thanks again!

I have a 4x4 of this vintage. Here are a couple of things to look at.
Make sure fuel pump is a low pressure type. about 3 # is good. Screw in yellow is air idle adjust. Prelim setting is ( turn screw all the way in. carefully. B ack out 2 1/2 turns.) If all this is ok welcome to the wonderful world of worthless Hitachi carburetors. about the only cure is to find a webber.
Search this forum for much info on swap.

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1980 Luv 4X4
another 1980 luv 4x4

I tink the aftermarket pump is the cause. Too much fuel pressure. I would replace the stock one in the tank and ditch the aftermarket before I replaced anything else...

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If you think no one cares, try missing a couple of payments...



FIAA!

SFPP!

+1 on fuel pump, make sure you have the correct one. Although if your float level is OK then maybe it's the right one...but 2 people already saying fuel pump, check that first. Also, adjust your carb properly. See below.

The line with the bolt plugging it is your vacuum advance port for your distributor, leave that plugged until you get it to idle. The fact that it idles rough with the choke off tells be it will run, you just need to adjust the carb.

Set idle by turning in the mixture screw, lightly seat it, then back off two turns. This is the correct adjustment, turning it out more won't do anything. This is from experience. Then adjust idle speed using idle speed screw until it runs at like 850 or 900 RPM. The manual choke is actually a good thing, leave it open and don't use it if you get the engine to start running.

Lastly, the rusty look around the accel pump tells me you probably need a carb rebuild kit, you are leaking a tiny bit of gas.

Black plugs means that you are rich, open the choke up!

Let me tell you, when I got my truck they had the idle screw way out and to compensate set the idle speed screw to open the throttle too much. It idled, but dieseled when I shut it off.

Thanks for the advice guys. I actually ran the engine with the fuel pump completely shut off and it acted the exact same way as it does with the pump on (until the float ran out of fuel). I figured since it was acting the same even without the pressure of any fuel coming in that it couldn't be the fuel pump, but maybe I'm wrong?

The carb definintely needs a rebuild, any suggestions for a good reliable kit? I don't want something with crappy gaskets or o-rings.

It might actually be bad fuel also, I don't know how long the tank has been sitting.

Thanks again

Well brother I have been running the same carb for quite a while and every now and then you just need to pull it off and clean the crap out of it. Squirt carb cleaner every hole you can find. Don't be stingy eather, the mixture screw on mine is 4.5 turns out from bottem. Hope this helps, these carbs leave a lot to be desired.

Well after reading a bunch on this forum and talking it over with my wife I decided that I'm just going to go with a weber. The hitachi carbs seem to just give everyone a headache. I do not have emmissions where I live so that isn't a factor.

Anybody got any good links to purchase a Weber carb or carb parts such as a Weber rebuild kit, air filters, linkage, etc?

User ctmandu has been helping me, he said he knows where I can get a 32/36 dgv that was on a nissan for cheap but if I purchase it I want to give it a rebuild, and I think I'll still need the adapter to fit the stock manifold and probably an air filter setup as well.

Thanks for the help guys.

pm sent with info...

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My old but now gone Luv...