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jfink
0
- Joined
- May 29, 2007
- Messages
- 3,979
- Reaction score
- 785
- Location
- Conroe, Tx
- First Name
- Joe
- Last Name
- Fink
Oh, I forgot to add that I saw a pickup that look just like my old 85 GMC. I spoke to the guy and discovered his was a Chevrolet and the funny thing about it I had replaced the wheels with the same ones, it was a plain Jane blue long bed truck with a 305 and terrible carbureted throttle response.
I had a 1983 long bed, grey, four wheel drive with manual hubs. Had the dual tanks. You know, the ones on the outside of the frame that exploded on side impact!
It had the electronic actuated tank valve would fail occasionally and then you had to guess which tank it was running on. When switched on the dash, the gauge would change but the valve wouldn't. I loved that truck. Oh the benefit of a clouded memory ... STORY TIME
I have to tell a story here, about that truck. My son, one of his friends and I were driving to McKinney Falls Park outside of Austin to camp for the weekend. They were probably 6 or 7 years old. On 183, just turning off 290, the truck ran out of gas. I was surprised because I had just switched the tanks, but apparently the valve failed ... again. So, I started playing with the gas switch and couldn't get it switched or started. Finally, thinking the valve had finally failed and I would have to use the empty tank, we hitched a ride and got some gas. The guy was nice enough to return us to the truck with a gallon of gas, where I put most the gallon in the empty tank.
The truck was on a hill and leaning away from the empty tank and the fuel pump would not pump the gas up, or so I thought. The boys were standing a good 50 feet away, up the hill. So, I took a little of the gas and put it on the breather to prime the engine. It almost started ... several times. Not giving it enough prime, so I loaded it up, and ... boom, the gas caught on fire. Flame on! The boys jumping and waving their arms. I yelled at my son to bring something liquid from the cooler. He brought me a beer. No, no! A can of coke. Back he came with the coke, which put out the fire. And fortunately, very little damage. Eventually, I took a screw driver handle and whacked the fuel valve a few times and heard it actually engage. It apparently had gotten stuck half way and had been giving no fuel at all.
When we finally got to the park, my son's friend had to call his parents to let them know we arrived safely (this was before cell phones). I heard him explain that the truck ran out of gas, we hitched a ride with some strangers, the truck caught on fire and that I wouldn't put it out with the beer. Eventually, I did get on with the father, to explain that basically what his son had told him, was the truth. Come to think of it, this was the last time he was allowed to go with us anywhere.
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. We all got one of those stories , right?
