My cousin had this truck sitting in his driveway for over a year and I finally convinced him to let me have it.. Well I figured out that the fuel pumps were not turning on when the key was turned and the injectors were not getting power. So i traced the problem to the eec relay. New relay did not work but two wires have power, one has ground, and the other one is intact. So i can jump two of the terminals and the truck starts fine and runs, but it has rough idle. Went through whole ignition system, everything checked out. There is a gurgling noise coming from the tank when i put my ear up to the bottom of it... doesn't sound like a normal sound for that pump. The rough idle is consistent like a miss. I drained most if not all of the old fuel out of the tank. Thanks in advance for any help...

 

Put fresh fuel in, and change the fuel filter.

You can get harness repair kits for the eec relay, you may want to fix that, could be part of your problem.

 

Ok, did you put new wires, cap, rotor, and plugs in it? I hope you went either with dealer wires (~$100) or carquest top line wires (~$75), spent ~$35 on the cap and another $12 on the rotor (preferably motorcraft but the high end napa/car quest stuff is good too) and used ONLY MOTORCRAFT COPPER plugs. If you did you can rule out ignition components.

Did you put any fresh fuel in it at all?

What about HEET or other water remover? It's been sitting for a year or so and there is probably water in the fuel.

 

I put fresh fuel and seafoam in the tank... i did not replace the fuel filter because it was replaced right when the truck went down.. should i still change it? I know the distributor was replaced before the truck broke down.. i am inquiring about the running condition before it stopped now.. but could it be timing?

 

All the bad gas went through that filter. You will probably have to change it at least twice, the gas will dissolve the crap left inside the tank, and be caught in the filter.


May be a timing issue, find TDC #1, and see where the rotor ends up in the distributor

 

ok I'll try that and go from there...now that I think about it when you get on the gas you can hear it almost backfiring... not enough fuel perhaps?

 

87 has a lift pump in the tank, and a high pressure pump in the frame rail by the filter. Make sure both pumps are working. You may want to check the fuel pressure with a guage.

 

Is there a port on the rail to check the fuel pressure?

 

schrader fitting on the fuel rail, passenger side, near the firewall. 6 cyl should have 45 lbs with the fpr plugged in, 60 with unplugged

 

Sounds good.. Thanks for the info. Will check it tomorrow