Three weeks ago I purchased a 1984 720 from a guy who had it sitting in the backyard for about 5 years. I got it for a great price and hauled it home as a long term project. I have been lurking this forum every day for the last three weeks soaking up all the info on this truck that I could get. You guys have some great info here, and it has helped me tremendously in getting this truck running again.
It is a base 720 with z24, no air conditioning, and a lot of surface rust.
I spent the first few days draining and flushing the fuel tank, and fuel lines of the old nasty gas that was left in it. I changed the fuel filter and added a battery and it started right up! This is one tough engine I would say.
It ran but extremely rough and erratic. I used the info here to cap the vacuum ports with the exception of the vacuum advance and brake booster, changed the plugs and added some treatment to the fuel. It is running fantastic now. I was concerned that I may have to pull the carb and go through it, but it appears that won't be necessary. I did discover that my truck had the notorious fuel pump relay issue, so I replaced it and all is well for now. The clutch slave was bad, so I replaced it, now I have a clutch as well. The Front brakes will need some pads, but are working for now. All I have left is to repair the exhaust leak. There is a quarter sized hole in the pipe about 3 inches before it reached the muffler inlet.
All in all, this long term project has turned into a much shorter project than I originally expected. By the end of the week I plan to have it inspected and tagged so I can drive it around on some short trips to see how it does.
The body work and paint job will come later, so it is still a somewhat long term project.
Thanks to everyone who has contributed the info here on this forum. It saved me a lot of time and effort attempting to get this truck roadworthy.