No mention of it anywhere in the 1986 FSM that I have access to. Could be a California thing I suppose that didn't make it into the regular FSM rather as a supplement, but that year did have a charcoal canister down on the frame rail for evaporative emissions controls for federal use.

Is this a California emissions truck trying to be emissions tested in California? If it is a California emissions truck, it should have a special emissions label under the hood somewhere (or did at one point).

 

I spent a bunch of time on Google and I can't find any mention of it, either. But I definitely remember them being common a long time ago. Weird.

 

after i got it out and was inspecting it. it felt like charcoal was inside.

 

That's what I thought. It really shouldn't be restrictive at all.

 

I did some more digging around on CK5.com. I only found a handful of threads that discussed it there, but it appears as though this was some kind of additional evaporative emissions device as you suggested Tom. There doesn't appear to be a general consensus on where it was used, but I would assume CA emissions. It is no longer available anywhere and in most cases it became gummed up over time to the point of restricting airflow leading to the driveability concerns that thomp here has. Some people were lucky enough to have all of the carbon disintegrate & be left with an empty wire mesh housing.

I guess I wouldn't throw yours away just yet. Remove it and put a fresh paper air cleaner in and see how things run. Some posts I read stated they had luck cleaning it with carb cleaner, but far more stated to just get rid of it to avoid future headaches. Only reason I would say to hang onto it is if your inspection station gives you a hard time over it not being there.

 

yes this is a california truck, trying to get it through emissions. i did keep it just incase.
Seems to run a little better but still bogs down when accelerating. but no backfires. just bogs down. If i lift off the pedal and press for normal acceleration it's fine.
Last night I did a thermal reading on the cat converter and it was like 250 on the inlet and 450 on the outlet.
not sure if thats good to have that big of a difference. i thought it was to be closer to 100 degrees difference.
right now Im thinking carb rebuild time.

 

I didn't see you mention it anywhere, but I assume you changed the fuel filter, right? Does yours have one of those little bronze ones in the carb inlet?

 

yup, did that when i did basic tune up.

 

What part of California are you in? I have a bunch of parts I'm trying to get rid of, including a barely-used catalytic converter. Is yours one of the older gigantic pellet-style ones, or a monolithic one?

 

I live in castaic, magic mountain area. looks like just a normal cat converter.
what do you want for it? and is it ca compliant?