Good morning from Highwood, Montana

[H8PVMNT]

Hello and compliments on the large body of information you guys have here! I am a 30 year Toyota hilux guy. An old trapper buddy on the way out offered my boys and I his trap line truck for a cord of firewood. He wants his things to go where they will be appreciated I guess.

We live off grid east of the rockies in rural Montana. Dependable and simple 4WD pickups are essential to our heat and water supply.

The pickup is an 89 power ram 50, extended cab with 155k on it. No rust to be seen and only the typical patina. G54b. 4.22 geared 5 speed.

Loving old Japanese 4x4s and needing an extra mule in the barn we took him up on it. His mechanic swapped a weber on it and the installation was a bit janky. No regulator and the fast idle cam was all messed up. He quit driving it due to drivability issues and a bad cold start.

Truck had been sitting for almost 2 years so the carb was all varnished up with that green ethanol residue. Lots of mouse modifications in the heater ducts and rear cab storage.


After an oil change, fresh gas and an hour or so disassembling and cleaning the carb the old Truck fired right up. Throttle was sticking and it ended up being that fast idle linkage had a screw loose. The weber had a rich idle jet so I kicked it down one notch. May need to step down one more. On to ignition timing now. He has only ported vac on it and it doesn't feel quite right.

These seem on par with Toyotas, only lower to the ground and with less aftermarket support. Looking forward to figuring it out.

We intend to just keep this one stockish except for maybe a rear traction device. It will haul wood and water and get us to work when the snow is too much for the car. Keep the road miles off the old Toyota that is more geared to off road chores.

[SubGothius]

Welcome to MightyRam50! Ported vac to the ignition advance should be fine, but to set the static base timing, pinch the hose with a clamp or just temporarily disconnect it and cap/plug the open barb or hose to the carb (depending which end you disconnected).

There should be a decal under the hood with the factory advance spec, which IIRC should be ~7.5°. If you don't have emissions testing, you might get better performance/mileage with slightly more advance, up to 10° or so. The usual method there is to bring the engine up to operating temp and raise the idle to ~2000 RPM (with vac advance disconnected), then slowly rotate the distributor until you find the spot where RPM rises to a peak on its own.

BTW, vac advance can actually be fed by manifold vacuum rather than ported off the carb. That's how all vac advance used to be connected, but they switched to ported vac to reduce emissions at idle. Switching to manifold vac should improve fuel economy and reduce operating temperature at idle.

[Law Dog]

They make a posi unit for those trucks and add a extra leaf in the back springs and you be surprised how much wood they will haul. I’m a trapper also and burn wood so I moved a lot with my 2.6 they get it done.

Welcome

[H8PVMNT]

Thanks for the tips. So there was gas dribbling out the accelerator pump. Turns out ethanol is hard on rubber bits. I replaced it with one for a 32/36 kit, which was slightly different. This is the DFEV, the left handed cousin of the 32/36. My carb had what looks like the anti-stall accelerator pump. The pump worked to stop the leak, but performance started falling off. Today the truck developed a miss and was running on 3 cylinders. Truck was guzzling fuel like a big block.. Snagged a cap and rotor at autozone on the way home. Plugs were all fowled up.

The correct carb kit came in the mail yesterday so tonight I rebuilt the carb for real. I replaced the power valve as well, thinking it would be crusty like the accelerator pump. It was -7f this evening so my fingers were dying putting the carb back on.

After all was said and done it runs smooth as glass and you get a nice kick when the secondary engages. I think the old power valve or the incorrect accelerator pump may have been creating a rich running scenario.

Not sure if I needed the cap and rotor but the old ones were visibly crusty and eroded.

[H8PVMNT]

Oh yeah, after hot dogging around in the snow tonight testing the carb I think it would be nice to have that posi to help hang the back end out. After we get her tuned and get the cobwebs off we will look for one.

[Law Dog]

Just figure out what your gear ratio is or swap out your current ring and pinion to the new unit, check car-parts.com they have several listed out your way on the site.