57 ford F-350 292 Y-Block 2bbl 4 speed

I was driving the truck and I stopped, the truck stalled immediately, I got it to start up but it wouldn't stay running without my foot on the gas pedal. Then the truck quit running all together when I was going 50 mph and I was lucky enough to coast into my driveway with it.

I drained and cleaned the gas tank, blew out the fuel line, replaced the fuel pump, discovered I had a few pin holes in the main body of the carb, so I bought a new carb for it.

The truck still won't start, it will hit but it does not want to take off, and it shoots a flame out the carb. but it doesn't seem like it does it as a result of a back fire.

I am at a total loss, with it. The truck would always start even if it had a dead battery (roll it to start)

 

You've done the most obvious stuff (fuel), so I'd look at spark next. It sounds like you're getting spark, but at the wrong time. The distributor may have come loose and rotated. If you still have points, the condenser could be bad, or the coil, or a wire.

 

The distributor didn't turn or anything, it was tight. I replaced the condenser, tried to start the truck and it still wouldn't take off, but that did away with the fire problem, i ran a fine piece of sandpaper on the points, and checked the adjustment which was good.

I was able to start the engine and the engine would stay running as long as i had the starter engaged and it would quit immediately as soon as i disengaged the starter.

Long story short, I pulled the ignition switch out of the dash sprayed some contact cleaner on it, put the wires back. The truck fired up without a problem.

Thanks for the help, you led me down the right path.

 

Good troubleshooting! Were you able to spray inside the switch? or was it just the external terminals that were bad?

 

I wire brushed (brass) the external contacts, and the connectors, sprayed them down with contact cleaner, and shot contact cleaner into the key slot. I might see if I can find a new switch just to be on the safe side, because the ignition switch is original to the truck

 

The old ones in good condition have better contacts than new stuff where they are trying to save a few yuan on copper, in my opinion. But they do wear out eventually.

 

I'll leave it alone for now and just see how it does. I don't drive the truck but once every couple of months for a couple of miles. It's amazing how reliable that truck has been though.