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my truck starts and runs and idels but shakes bad the whole truck and when i floor it it revs up a little and won't keep on reving up and it's not redlining i can tell you that it's quite and i have to keep my foot on gas or will die in a minute or so.

it's like my truck has a rev limiter at a very low rpm. damn thing.

have you done anything to the engine or ignition before this started?

it sounds like bad points. if the points slipped closer together they won't open all the way and the engine can't pick up speed.

you could also check the filter in your fuel pump... take the ground wire off the pump and the whole bottom turns with a wrench on the nut shape on the end. the filter pops out .....if it's nasty and rusty leave it out, flush the crap out of the pump put the end back on, hook up the ground and install a barrel type filter in the line right before it to keep more crap from getting in.

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That does sound like points. The 76 I used to drive would just suddenly eat points, basically burning a chunk of one side to the other. Once it did it, it ran like crap if even at all. I've also see similar behavior from getting the disti cap wet. Whatever dirt/dust is inside the cap will line up and etch itself into the plastic forming a trace from the contacts to the disti body. I had to learn that one the hard way once, after replaceing everything else of course.

Finally, water in the gas. This can also work in about the same way, like a rev limiter. My wife bought fuel in Tillamook during the flood season once and drove almost 100 miles home doing no better than 30MPH most of the time. A bottle of gas line drier might help, or you can dry pouring in some 99% rubbing alcohol. It is the same basic ingredient as most gas drier additives. I'd avoid anything less than 95% like 70% you usually have around the house. The other 30% is water, which is what you're trying to get rid of.

You can sometimes check for water in the gas by running some into a glass/clear container. Usually draining the fuel filter into a jar works for me. Water and gas don't mix, so if you see two liquids in there you have found your trouble. As I recall water sits like bubbles on the bottom.

For another opinion and what it's worth, i agree.......points.
I should know , have to replace mine quite often for some odd reason.

Here is a clue stay off the long skinny peddle sometimes it might work then

my truck blet a headgasket last year and thats what it seemed like. try disconnecting the coil and cranking then engine over. how does the tone of the starter sound. does it crank even or does it go up and down in tone. if its even then you probably have relatively even compression. if it changes tone you might have 1 or 2 bad cylinders. my headgasket bled between the #3 and 4 cylinder walls. needless to say it ran like crap.

I would Like to thank you all for this post, it has finally helped me figure out what the heck is wrong woth my '80 4x4, it hasn't run very well since July, i rebuilt the carb, new fuel pump, new fuel filter, new gaskets, and so forth, nothing worked or had any effect, i never though to check the points , man do i feel dumb, oh well i guess thats what i get for growing up with electronic ignition!

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'80 Luv 4x4, 3" BL, 1.5" SL, 32/36, 2.25" exhaust...and fuzzy dice.
'95 Toyota 4Runner Limited 5-Speed.