Call ? It was more like "Recall" Also the suggestion to hold the gas pedal down while cranking. Learned that one the hard way too with my 06 GT Stang. Had a no start situation with that one once (actually twice) and after running the battery down and then jumping it I happened to hold the pedal down and "wa-la" it fired up. All that cranking dumped too much fuel after a time for it to start, something the owners manual doesn't mention on trouble shooting. It does say to not depress the go pedal while starting, so I never did until that one time. The thing that caused the no start was jumping in and firing it up and not letting the computer go through it's thing before stomping on the go pedal. That killed the engine initially and it wouldn't fire up afterwards.

 

Here we go again, same problem. This time leading up to it the van was hard to start when it was humid outside. What always did the trick was removing the distributor cap and cleaning the contacts as well as the rotor end. So yesterday I thought to finally replace the cap and rotor and it still won't start. Has spark and plenty of fuel pressure. I tried removing the air filter and still no luck. Somebody suggested to replace the actual distributor assembly but at $150 it's a lot of money to gamble without being certain it's that.

 

If your getting spark your distributor assembly should be fine. If replacing the air filter fixed it before, it sounds like moving the filter hoses may have jarred something in the throttle body. Check those electrical connections. If humid (damp) days make it harder to start then maybe you need some dielectric grease in the fittings to keep out moisture.
Just because you have pressure on the fuel rail it may not be enough to work the injectors. Did you check actual pressure or just see if pressure at the valve?

 

Are you sure you got the wires back where they were before ? If you somehow got em all "walked" one position over, that's akin to advancing or retarding the timing enough to throw the timing off to where it won't start. Also, what year model is this ? Is there a TFI module on the distributor body (outside). And how many miles on the engine ? (could be the timing chain got too loose and it's jumped time)

 

I was extremely careful to replicate the individual wires onto the posts of the new distributor cap. I did double and triple check. Perhaps the wires are not in direct accordance with the preferred layout to prevent electrical interference as I read here that this engine is prone to that issue.

I don't know if it has a TFI module. It's a 95' E150 with 280k miles. I am fairly certain it's an electrical issue rather than timing because leading up to this it would be hard to start when it was humid outside. If it was dry it would fire right up.

 

Look on the distributor in front. There will be a flat projection about 1" x 2" pointing forward off the body. If it has a TFI module, that's where it'll be located. If that area is bare aluminum, then the computer controls the timing functions and thus is not your problem. As far as the spark plug wires jumping fire, if you've got good wires, that's never a problem. I've run the O.E. wires up to 70K miles (before the 1st tuneup) and never had issues with cross firing. You would have to have some very old O.E. wires or some really crappy replacements to have a chance of that happening. Especially to have them cause it not to start and run. It's just not going to happen in 99% of situations. If in doubt about your wires, buy a set of 9MM Ford Racing wires and replace them. These will stand up to years of use, especially inside a van's engine's box (extreme heat in there)

 

The humidity dried up today and it started but it's running rough. I've had this issue before when a mechanic did a tune up and he crossed two spark plug wires on the distributor posts. I guess I'm digging back into the cap to check the wires.

Update:

I did cross two wires and starts and runs perfect now but who knows what the next humid day will bring. Thanks for everyone's help.

 

Warm it up by driving around awhile to get it to normal operating temperature, then take your garden hose and spray water into the radiator while the engine's running. If it quits or starts running rough, you have not found the problem yet. If nothing happens, turn the engine off and let it sit for 30 minutes or so to let the water dry up and get the engine box nice and humid, then try and restart it and see if the problem is still there.