I have no clue, do you?

[first today]

The other day my truck started bucking when I hit the gas. I checked my fuel filters and they were pretty dirty. I replaced them. My edelbrock carb is only a year old, but since the trash in the filters were bad I opened it up. There was a lot of sediment in the bowls.I took the carb off and cleaned everything out with carb cleaner. I put it all back together and finally got it to start up. It ran okay but not great. When I got home I swapped my carb for another edelbrock that I had. The truck ran much better. I drove it about five miles and it started to kill on me. It ran fine until I would hit the brake, then it was like you just shut it off. I cranked it for about twenty minutes and finally got it to start. I drove home and could not get it to start again. I replaced the carb gaskets thinking that the old ones were sucking air. I cranked it and it started. It revved to about two grand for thirty seconds and died, never to start again. I took my year old edelbrock and completely took it apart. I cleaned and soaked everything. I found no trash in it. This morning I put it back on the truck and it still would not start. Now let me tell you in the past year to six months I have replaced the electronic brain on the fender replaced the timing chain set a month ago replaced the distributor with a new reman replaced the cap, rotor. and wires replaced the fuel pump replaced the carb replaced the fuel filters replaced the coil replaced the vacuum hoses replaced the spark plugs Today I bought new spark plugs. I had fire when cranking but thought I might have fouled the plugs out. I was right. So once I replaced them all I still could not get it to start. Same deal as before, crank and crank and crank no start. I drained the battery and replaced it with another... same deal. I replaced the battery again with the one out of my wifes car. I sprayed ether and poured gas down the carb, it still would not start. Finally it started to sputter, it backfired through the carb afew times. Once I put the fire out ,I cranked it again and it fired up like it never had a problem. The idle is perfect, it goes down the road with power, and fires up every time I hit the key. All of the above items listed I checked and swapped out with the old until I was back with all of the new replaced parts back on it. I had fire. I had fuel. I had clean lines. I had no start. What would make it do this and then just fire up like nothing ever happened? All of my neighbors asked me how I fixed it and I told them I do not know. Any ideas?

[Franklin2]

I would suspect the dirt was holding the float needle open on both carbs, and they were pouring fuel down into the engine. A flooded engine will not fire at all. That is evidenced by the plugs being fouled also. Messing around with a fuel system that was already dirty is risky business, since one little speck of dirt or a little chunk of rubber from replacing a fuel line hose back onto a fitting is all it takes.

I think you finally got the dirt cleared out. You may want to think about replacing the fuel tanks. All that rust and sediment came from somewhere, usually a rusty tank.

[first today]

Dave, I do agree that I should replace the tanks. I went to stert it up this morning and no go. When I got home today It still would not start. I took the coil from my 79 and hooked it up... it fired right up. I reconnected the 4 month old coil and no start.

That is sad that a 30 year old coil works better than a brand new Wells coil. Wise old Gump was right, new parts are like a box of chocolates... you never know how good it is.