Greetings, long time reader/first time poster here, with a problem. I have a 1996 F150 XL Supercab, 5.0, auto trans, 110K miles. Truck was bought from a family member, so I know its history and where its been which is a plus. Anyway, it sits in my driveway most of the time, but occasionally I have a reason to haul something.

Problem is this, occasionally it will flat out refuse to start! It will turn over but seems like no fire. Other times, you just touch the key and it comes to life. Its also began dying out while driving, take off from a stop light and it just dies, no backfire or anything. Once it comes to a stop, usually starts right up again. The truck has dual tanks, the front tank's sending unit has never worked, but the tank is full of gas, and amount of gas in the tank doesn't seem to matter.
I have read from searches on here that ignition switches can go bad, mine is worn out, once I use the key to move the switch from the locked position I can remove the key and start and kill the engine without the key.

I have one of the handheld scanners, scanned it and got a P0401, and a p0300. 401 is Insufficent EGR flow, and 0300 is engine misfire. Doesn't seem like much help. Previous owner has told me that its has had the 401 code as long as he's had the truck, Check Engine light always on. He said he lived with it. Truck does seem to be running rich, very pronounced exhaust smell.

I am not a great mechanic, but I can follow directions....any ideas where to start?

 

plugs wires check timing is a good place to start

 

Many of the "quit while running" problems followed by "no start" and then run with no problems are caused by the PIP inside the distributor. Try swaping one from a junk yard and see if the problem goes away.

 

I was afraid of that. Good thing I don't need this thing as a daily driver because it ain't in the budget right now to look into changing a distributor for sure...All the searches I did pointed that way, too.