No idea what's wrong now...

[sublimer]

Sometimes Lucy likes to act up. What I mean is, she acts like she doesn't have enough juice to turnover, she'll crank---crank---crank until the cranking starts to fade because it's killing the battery further.

Most recently was yesterday, I was driving her and I was stopped at a light. I pulled the choke out for giggles because she sounds pretty, and while I'm waiting at the worlds longest red light she just stalled. I couldn't get her to turnover again. I had all my tools and my multimeter read 12.0v. This afternoon, after jumping Lucy she said 12.3v. 12.3v is low, but enough to crank. When she's running, the alternator is putting out enough juice, l I've measured this several times including right after jumping Lucy yesterday. I just rebuilt the starting/charging system over the past 4 weeks, new starter, alternator, voltage regulator, solenoid, and battery cables.

This led me to believe that since I pushed the battery so hard lately because the previous starting/charging wasn't working right that the battery needed to be replaced (it was a low end off-brand battery to begin with). So, I got it load tested at O'Reilly today and they said the battery is just fine, but they did note the sulfur smell while testing it.

What else could be the issue?

[CrypticRacer13]

does it happien wheather its cold or warm? The truck, not the time of day haha
Sounds like some of the issue can be a case of heat soak at the carb, had the same issue with my highboy a few weeks ago but only after she was nice an warm, fixt it by istalling an eddy poly spacer under the carb.
Also whats the cold cranking amps of your battery? could it be not big enough for what you need? something to look into for sure

[sublimer]

This is my battery:

675 CA
540 CCA

[Whateverman]

you've replaced pretty much everything related to the starting and charging system but i'd still be inclined to blame the battery even though it checked out okay ,i've had batteries pass the load test with flying colors and had them give up the ghost within a week of doing so

another thing i thought of that's given me problems in the past : if your timing is advanced too far the engine will be harder to turn over especially when the engine's warmed up - it can make it seem like the starter is toast and/or the battery is cackin it

when you get 'er up and running you might want to make your life easier & lay off playing with the choke until you're confident that everythings sorted out - i never take my own advice maybe it'll help you out

[70_F100]

when you get 'er up and running you might want to make your life easier & lay off playing with the choke until you're confident that everythings sorted out - i never take my own advice maybe it'll help you out

When you pull the choke when the engine is hot, you're flooding the engine and using more gas.

This will cause excessive wear in the cylinders because it washes off any lubrication.

Done frequently enough, it will result in fuel getting into the crankcase and thinning the oil, which could cause bearing failure.

Just not a good idea...

[Nitekruizer]

This is my battery:

675 CA
540 CCA

[ Image ]

IMHO your battery is not too small.This is the same size(capacity) as two batteries that I have. Both are identical batteries (not the same brand as yours),one is five years old and the other is eleven years old. The five year old battery is in my daily driver and has no problem starting a 351W all year round. Block heater and battery blanket plugged in in winter of course. The eleven year old battery is in one of my summertime cruisers and is still quite capable of starting a 383 Mopar that has to be cranked 3 or 4 times if it sits for more than a couple of days. If this battery sits for more than two weeks without the engine being started, or during the winter when I'm not using it, I will put it on the trickle charger for a couple of hours every two weeks or so just to maintain it. Try this if your truck doesn't get driven a lot. It works. I honestly can't believe that this battery has lasted as long as it has. You should have more than 13.5 volts across your battery with the engine idling and ideally 14-14.5 volts at idle with all accesories turned off. In the past I remember having to loosen the bolt holding the distributor so I could retard the timing a few degrees just to get a hot engine started. In a pinch you could try that. As soon as it started I moved the distributor back again and tightened the bolt. Hope this helps. Good Luck.

[QC]

You need to charge the battery with a battery charger until it is fully charged. Your battery is so low the alternator is never going to get it fully charged driving around town. A fully charged battery is 12.7 volts. A battery that is 12.3 is only about 25% charged. Cranking with a low battery also shortens the life of the starter.
When a 12 volt battery gets below 12.4 volts the plates start to sulfate which is irreaversable damage. Sitting in low voltage kills wet batteries.