I'm sure ya'll have had things like this happen to you....you're having trouble with something on you truck, whatever it might be....it seems like it's going to be a ton of work to get it fixed. But lo and behold, all it turns out to be is a little thing. A loose wire, a disconnected hose, something plugged up that's easily fixed.

Just this past Monday, I went to work at 4:30am. Didn't have a problem with my truck at all, it started up and ran great. Monday afternoon I got back into town from work and started it up, and it wouldn't idle right. Idled real low, exhaust smelled rich, and the engine had a bad shake to it.

I checked all the vacuum hoses, sprayed carb cleaner down the carb, checked and regapped the spark plugs, cleaned the distributor cap contacts and rotor contacts, and replaced the carb gasket and spacer....still ran the same. Til the other night when I was warming it up getting ready to leave, when it just died out of the blue. Not like fuel starvation, but like if you turn the key off. I was in the process of swapping out the DSII box for an old factory unit thinking my aftermarket replacement had died, when I decided to go check out the wiring at the coil...

Turns out, all my problems were the result of the green\yellow dot wire from the DSII box to the coil wearing through at an old crimp-on connector where I had spliced in for a tach. I replaced the whole horseshoe connector and a length of the wires coming from it with one from a spare coil I have.

Problem solved, and now my truck runs great again. I could get mad about having to go through all that mess over one wire, but hey, I got a mini tune-up out of this and it all needed doing anyway...

 

I had similar problem when truck was new. Occasionally it would just die! Anywhere. No rhyme or reason. Driving down the interstate or turning into traffic. Very frustrating/dangerous. It was not consistent and defied my detective work. Finally one day after a particularly hair-raising incident, I started pulling on ignition wires. One to the coil broke extra easy. Turned out to be a factory harness problem. Terminal wire to the coil was 'overmashed' and the wire hidden within was operating on about 4 strands of wire....sob! Cut if off and installed new terminal....been good ever since. Electrical problems are always 'challenging'.....

 

I had the same thing. The truck was running great. I was driving on the freeway when it suddenly died. I get out of the truck and it is pouring rain. I pop the hood and start checking everything. Everything was in good shape. I had the truck towed home. I started replacing things (module, cap, rotor, even ignition switch and battery cables. I started looking closer and finally found the nut had come loose that held one of the wires onto the coil. I had replaced the coil about a month before. So for the price of all the parts and time to replace them, all it was ended up being was a little nut for the coil.

 

This wasn't on my F100, but on my DD Ranger, I had a bad IAC that couldn't regulate the airflow. The idle would constantly dip below 500RPMs, and if I didn't manually hold the throttle and keep the idle above 500 at stops, it would die. It died quite a few times, usually at the big intersections with long waits. (Go Figure). Swapped on a new IAC, and all is well.

 

Not a F150, but about 20 years ago I was driving my '84 Bronco II late at night about 20 miles from town. Going down a long hill the engine just died, as if the ignition was turned off. I did a quick look under the hood and checked the coil wires, but it was a no go. I had it towed into town. The shop checked it out, and said that the rotor had come loose. I had tuned it up about a month prior and evidently I hadn't seated the rotor properly. Often the biggest problems are the simplest; it's the "gee, it runs kind of rough when . . ." that is hard to track down.

 

Not an 80's truck, but many years ago my dual-tanked '72 F-250 ran out of gas in the front tank so I turned the valve to the rear. But, instead of starting up again we coasted to a stop - in a very remote part of NM and not long before dark. Since the problem was obviously fuel-related I tore down the Q-Jet I'd installed, to no avail. Finally I realized it must not be fuel and checked - no spark. Apparently, as we coasted a mist of oil was pushed into the distributor and fouled the points. Since I'd installed a CDI unit there wasn't enough current through the points to cut through the oil. A swipe w/a business card and we were back in business.

On the same trip we pulled into a rest stop in AZ late at night, and after the pit stop discovered the engine wouldn't start. No ignition. The next morning I tracked it down to a bad coil. Splitting the case open w/a chisel I found that the solid wire from the terminal into the winding had broken. I turned a loop in each end of the broken wire, inserted a piece of stranded wire, and crimped. Several turns of paper towel gave enough insulation to let it mount in the standard position, and the engine started and ran fine. We stopped at the first parts store, bought a new coil, and put it in the side compartment until we got back to Wichita - 1,500 miles later.

 

These are the stories I love. My dad tells a similar one about an old dodge he had where the points burned out the only parts place within walking distance didn't have the right one. So he ended up filing down a set get it to work.

I would have cursed and called a tow truck.

 

where there is a will, there is a way. necessity is the mother of invention...etc!