My dad gave me this truck, family vehicle. When I drive along the truck will puff...puffff....puffffff, and die.It takes a shot of thrust into the carberator to get it going again.Then... dies once again down the road.My father said that he put 2 fuel filters and has had mechanics tell him they cant figure it out.Tried also cleaning tank and fuel lines might have had old rubber falling off so replaced those.Now it dies 4-6 times just driving around town for a couple hours.
Anybody know?

 

You don't give much to go on, but how about the fuel pump? Check the pressure? Should be around 4-6 lbs on a older Ford. Has the truck been sitting for a while? Dried out accellerator pump in carb? All the steel lines from tank to carb ok? Pin hole in line(rust out) could cause pump to suck air at times. Also check float level in carb. A few things to think about.

 

Recommend elimiating the ignition system first by some testing.
1. Ensure the points are good and properly adjusted.

2. Remove all wires from the coil BAT terminal.

3. Run a wire from the battery positive terminal to a 57-59 Ford ballast resistor to the BAT terminal on the coil.

4. Start it up and drive around town to see if it stalls. If it runs good you may have a bad ignition switch, intermittent wiring failure to the coil, or a failing resistance wire. If it still stalls the problem is either fuel, coil, or mechanical. (if it runs you will have to disconnect the battery-to-coil wire to shut it off)

Good Luck, hope you get it fixed !!

 

You may also want to check your timing chain, or cam. Mine did about the same thing and had all kinds of new replacement parts until a friend showed me. New chain and gears and I was putt,putting again. What made me the maddest is that he`s one of those off breed men. You know, Chevy. Oh well, atleast he drove an American truck. Have fun!!!

 

I vote for a carburetor problem, as you say a shot of thrust fixes it temporarily.

Has the carburetor been replaced with a rebuilt unit?

I had a 64 econoline that I put a replacement carb on. The replacement was made differently from the original. It had a different bowl, etc. But the mounting holes and linkage fit perfectly.

Soon I found that I could start it up cold fine, drive a few blocks, shut it off, then restart it while still warm. Then I would pull up to the street to start off and just as I got into the street, it would die. A few seconds later it would start and run fine.

Long story - short ending: I found another carb like the original and replaced it. It turns out the first replacement carb was vapor locking after it warmed up because of the excessive heat in the engine compartment, and the venting was different from the original.

 

Make sure you have a VENTED gas cap. Next time this happens loosen the fuel line a little, use two wrenches. You should have residual fuel pressure in the line. If you don't double check all those hoses and lines for air leaks. Make sure the connection is tight where the line enters the tank on top.
good luck!
regards; Jerry Martin

 

My gas cap is orig.
However, new story. When the truck stalled again I immedietly opened the hood, took off the air filt. and looked into the carb(2 barrel Holley) with a flahlight in order to be able to see the jets sqirt gas into the bowl. Guess, no gas shooting when I pulled on the throttle linkage(gave it gas). So, the prob., I would deduce?, is somewhere between the gas tank and the jets(or whatever you call that shooter thing that sqirts gas in two diff streams into the bowl.
Here's another thing thats puzzling, It always starts and runs fine until it gets warm(5-10 min or so),then dies like explained. If I wait till it cools completely, it will run again, for a short while(across town). So.. Vapor lock?
Remember, it did this alot when my dad first gave me the truck after it had been sitting for nearly 8 months with 2-thirds tank of gas. I added STP water remover from NAPA auto stores and it stopped doing it for 2-3 weeks. Ive treated it 2-3 times since then and Ive always kept a fullish tank. Now its doing it again as Ive explained above...
OK sorry bout the long message.
Anyone help?
Joe

 

I have found out more info. I am not getting gas to the carb. When the truck died I imm. pulled off the fuel line hose at the metal line. It wasnt getting gas. Dad put a new fuel pump on only 1500 miles ago, yet it intermitintly stops fuel delivery.Could be a clogged(occasionally) fuel filter, I have two. Or could be a falty pump.
I will continue to work on it.
Thanx Joe

 

You are probably going to have to pull the fuel tank and clean it out, plus make sure the fuel line is clear-not rusted. I had an old car that would intermittently cut off and found it had rust flakes in the bottom of the tank and in the fuel line. It would run until I went around a turn or over a bump and then it would quit. Finally it wouldn't run at all, and I had to pull the tank and run a whole new fuel line up to the engine. Even after this it would start and run for about 3 minutes and then quit. I replaced the new fuel pump again and it ran good after that. I guess all of that rust got in the fuel pump and ruined it.

 

Thank you for the message, I will try that.
Joe

 

You are not going to believe this.... or maybe you will
This whole problem with the truck dying intermittently was floating pieces of foil like paper in the gas tank. The kind, smaall and round that are on the tops of gas additives like simulead and stp water remover. They seal the fluid in the plastic bottles and are to be removed, COMPLETELEY before pouring into gas tank. Well, I found no less than 5 in there. I checked the inside of the tank yet this time directly after it stalled again and VOILA there it was stuck right up against the metal fuel tube going down into and to the bottom of the tank.
I know this was a rookie move, as I am a rookie but they did help me learn alot about my fuel system-the whole thing
Thanx for all the help
Joe

 

Oh , also they werent from me,in my defense. They were the work of my father since he started having the prob in 96. I just got it 3 weeks ago
Joe

 

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 04-Apr-01 AT 08:19 PM (EST)[/font][p]ok...try this: get a vacuum pump, hook it up to your vacuum advance, start the engine. pump up the vacuum, and see if the engine dies. if it does, you have a grounding problem in your distributor. as i do not have all details on your issue, this is a good place to start from. also, when your ciol gets hot, it could be groundin itself out. this is not a common problem, so we dont always think to look there. good luck... feel free to e-mail me at whomrig(No Email Addresses In Posts!)

Wayne

 

 

Hey familytruck don't feel bad I once rebuilt the whole feul system on a CAT wheel loader (several thousand $) and when the stalling problem persisted we checked the fuel tank and found a sandwich baggy, virtually invisible floating in diesel fuel, wrapped aruond the pickup. Live and learn you'll probably encounter things like this many times in life. Good luck with your truck, Rich.