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M37 not running correctly after being stored for 2 years

Karl kostman

Well-known member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
2,283
836
113
Location
Fargo ND
Hey guys I am going to relate a little experience I had getting my 52 M37 out of my warehouse and running this week in the hopes that maybe it will save somebody some time in their future! I went over to my warehouse to get my M37 out and get it running I used my trailer and winched the truck on and took it home, once home I rolled it off the trailer and pulled in into the shop to get started. I charged the batteries, checked all the fluids and it fired right up but wouldn't get above a idle, I checked the fuel filter and found some sediment in the filter that was coming through, cleaned the filter and she fired right up again and idled good for about 10 seconds then running rough again, I rechecked the filter and found more sediment. This time I took the filter off and running the electric fuel pump ran a half gallon into a clear plastic jug and there was more sediment, after doing this a couple more times all was clear. I fired up the truck again and it was running very rough and lean to the point it back fired. I at that point drained the bowl on the carb and it seemed full, I had great fuel flow up to the carb but it was acting like it was lean as heck. Pulled the carb opened that up and removed everything and blew out all the air passages and circuits thinking this had got to fix it, reinstalled and it changed nothing. Thinking maybe the fuel had gone bad I tested that and it came back marginal so I drained the tank and put 10 gallons of fresh fuel in and tried it again, no difference still barely running and acting extremely lean. I have another carb just like the one on the M37 so I thought I would try that and STILL exactly the same thing so that ruled out the carb. This morning I went out and pulled the distributor cover (what a pain) and went through the points, rotor and checked the gap on the points put everything back together and she fired up immediately and ran exactly like it did when I parked it two years ago perfect! I did not even think about the distributor since I rebuilt everything in there two years ago NEW everything including coil, there couldnt be anything wrong there right? When I am trouble shooting issues on trucks I try NOT to have preconceived notions on whats going on and just take it a step at a time in a logical manner until you narrow things down to the actual cause of the problem. Well in this case I was so absolutely sure it had to be the carb I let that blind me to other possibilities! I learned my lesson, and I sure hope this can help somebody else in the future when they are dealing with issues on their trucks! Good luck guys!
Karl
 

foxtrk2

Member
153
4
18
Location
foxboro ma
man you are so spot on I went through the same thing when I got my 63 contact truck running . and even bought new carb from vintage only to find out the dist cap was badly cracked in fact had to take an old original cap off junked motor and clean with dremmel tool brush and its styill in there and running fine for over seven years now good post thanks
 
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