issues on my road trip

[CamperSpecial01]

Hello,

I have a 77 c20 camperspecial. I live in phoenix az, and drove it up north to Williams to go camping. Put about 450 miles on it. I had some issues I wanted some opinions on.

My truck doesn't seem to like the mountains haha, which sucks, since the whole 3 1/2 hour drive there and back, is mountains. I would loose speed quickly going up hill, and not be able to get it back till I am leveled out again. Going from 65-70 mph, to about 50 ish mph. This worries me, since i am looking to put a cabover camper on this, and take this camping with me next time. I am worried about the mountains with 2500 lbs or so in the back.

The other issue, that happend twice, on the way back, was the truck started sputtering, and lurching forward on the interstate trying to accelerate, i had to take my foot off the gas, and then re apply it, and it worked again.

I was hoping to get some opinions if anyone else had experienced anything like this.

My inlaw said the sputtering could be vapor lock, and that I should get a good tune up with new plugs and wires. Hes not too truck savy so I thought I d ask here.

Thanks again, I appreciate the help. Have a great weekend.

matt

[nick613]

hmmm... Do you know the gear ratio? If it's higher like 3.08 or 3.42 it would make sense that you'd be losing speed going up the hills. Hard to pinpoint the sputtering on the highway but it is likely a fuel issue, maybe the pump is going out or the carburator needs some work. If you haven't given it a tune up recently you probably should do that... It is a 34 year old truck.

[jaredself]

hmmm... Do you know the gear ratio? If it's higher like 3.08 or 3.42 it would make sense that you'd be losing speed going up the hills. Hard to pinpoint the sputtering on the highway but it is likely a fuel issue, maybe the pump is going out or the carburator needs some work. If you haven't given it a tune up recently you probably should do that... It is a 34 year old truck.

That's exactly right. New plugs, wires, cap, and rotor will usually make a world of difference if nothing else has been done in several years.

[CamperSpecial01]

hey thanks for the responses!!

No, I don't know the gear ratio, do you know where I could find that? Is it on the RPO sticker, or maybe where to look under the truck?

Ill definetly look into the tune up. I have to replace the power steering hose, there is a leak and its loosing its ease in turning. Ill try to do the tune up in the same appt.

Thanks again for the responses, I appreciate it.

Matt

[jaredself]

The rear end ratio is sometimes on a metal tag on the back part of the differential cover. More than likely you have a 14 bolt rear end so the ratio is probably on the 3.73 side, but look and see.

[CamperSpecial01]

Right on jaredself, Ill get out and look later on. The pavement in phoenix stays 100 plus for a while haha. Thanks again for the info.

Matt

[85k5]

I would definably check the carb out....maybe even have it bench tested to make sure, you should be losing 25 mph on a upgrade with no weight. That would also attribute to your stumble