So i recently bought an 85 2wd ram with a /6 4-speed. On the trip home from picking it up about an hour into the trip i went to down shift and it lost power. It was all i could do to limp it to the nearest exit. After messing around with it me and my buddy managed to get it a little farther down the road but same problem. It loses power and gets jerky and sounds rough. I had it towed home and am now in the troubleshooting process. Sometimes it starts and seems to run fine, other times it starts off rough and stalls. I am planning on checking the carb as the previous owner said it was rebuilt. Also digging around for vacuum leaks and plan on pulling the distributor to check the gear. Are there any other things that should be high on my check list?

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Currently a 1976 /6 with no car to put it in, hoping to build a hot rod around it.

Does this truck have any sort of lean burn computer system?

Yes, I eventually want to get rid of just to simplify troubleshooting.

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Currently a 1976 /6 with no car to put it in, hoping to build a hot rod around it.

get rid of leanburn

My guess is the leanburn is causing most, if not all, of your loss-of-power problems.