hey guys, i was just curious on wether you could help me out or not, ya see, i got a 1986 F150 1bbl carb inline 6, so heres the problem, for a while now the truck was running good until about a week or two ago, whenever i start it, it warms up just fine and whenever i try to go to work, about 3 or 4 miles away from work the thing shuts off on me while im driving down the road and it will pick up again for a little while, i dont know if im starving it of gas or what, so, i pull over and try to start it again, bout the 3rd time i turn the key over ittl fire up, and it will stay cranked for maybe 3 seconds, but yesterday i came to the conclusion it had to of been my carburetor because i was trying to diagnose it in the wires and distributor, that wasnt the problem, but whenever i got home from work just as soon as i got in the driveway it died,"as it done before, whenever it warms up ittl cut out or what not." then i heard something pop under my hood. soooooooo. yeah,, haha.. i looked under the hood and i had my brother in law to sit in the seat and crank it, so he did and the carb sounded like it was working "because i had the air housing off." but the third time he tried cranking it over the carb acted like it backfired..... soo he tried it again, it looked like suit came out of it the second time and im like, welp lets go in. i dont know whats wrong with it.. but if you have any suggestions please feel free to tell me what your opinion is. Thanks for your time

 

Sounds like the carb is dumping un-metered fuel into the intake.

You might as well get a carb kit, it shouldn't be expensive for a little 1bbl.

 

Kits are about 15-20 bucks. Just out of curiosity, did you check the ignition module?

 

When it won't start, look down the throat of the carb with a flashlight and without cranking the engine, push back on the throttle to open it wide open. You should see fuel squirt into the engine. If not, you have a fuel supply problem.

 

well i took yalls advice and got a carb kit, installed it properly, now its not wanting to crank at all. the carb is getting fuel but i think its the timing now. cause i pou a new cap and button on it. soo. yeah any advise on timing it? i found the marks and i found the notch in the crankshaft. all i need is the timing light. soo anymore advice would be even more appreciated it.

 

If it was a timing problem, it should spit and sputter when cranking. Are you getting any spark? Is the rotor turning under the dist cap when you crank the engine?

 

1986 6-banger, this is computer-controlled, right? Have you read the codes yet?

Ford Fuel Injection
Ford Ranger/Bronco II EEC-IV Testing

As the guy below can certainly attest, don't go changing things *****-nilly only because they COULD BE the problem.

 

I have the same truck, year and engine. Had a similar issue and threw lot of parts at it in the ignition. I don't know about yours, but mine the root cause turned out to be a bare ground wire that wraps around the 3 main ignition wires wore through the blue PIP wire up by the valve cover. When things were just right it would short the ignition out and wouldn't start. I'd pull the module connector or wiggle the wire harness enough and that would move it just enough to cover up the issue until I drove it a little more then the same thing all over again. Ended up with a new coil, distributor, cap, rotor plugs you name it. Problem was the short. Good luck!

 

Yes, to you "computer-controlled" question, ctubutis, at least originally.

 

You didnt pull your dizzy did you?

I would suspect spark issues also.

the Firing Order on the 300 is 1-5-3-6-2-4 clockwise. Are your wires set up correctly?

 

@ Franklin2 yes i'm getting a good fat blue spark whenever i checked the plugs to see if it was firing.
@ctubutis, no i haven't been able to get a computer hooked up to it. in due to me working all the time,
@ENCLOSURES, i haven't ruled that one out of the book yet, i have some wires that are not exposed but, the tape surrounding the wires is coming off, ill check it out,
@ Alcaeus, no i didn't pull the distributor out, i just put the rotor button and distributor cap back on it,


but something was brought to my attention about two days ago, the buddy i work with was a mechanic for about 32 years and he said ford made the gears out of a hard plastic and or fiber but im going to be putting a steel and aluminum gears in it, "not chain or belt" but if i was to get metal shavings in the oil pan they would be picked up by the oil filter, so in that case, if any of you have any more comments or statements please feel free to put in your input. thanks!

 

When you replaced the distributor cap, did you swap one sparkplug wire at a time?

 

Look for a bad wire or plug in the harnesses coming from the ignition box. I just went through the same thing with my truck. It turned out to be a bad electrical plug coming off the ignition. It was the 4 way female plug going to coil and distributor. The green wire that went to the coil was completely rotten. It would make contact and run fine and then cut out as you were driving and then would make contact again and I would have a huge backfire. I had already changed the coil and fuel filter thinking they were the problem. Luckily, I figured it out before I was completely stranded. Napa had the female 4 way in stock so I wired everything back up, cleaned and dielectric greased the remaining plugs of the harness and it runs like new again. However it was a challenge for me to repeat what the previous owner had done with the wiring. He had someone put in an MSD ignition and didn't follow the instructions from MSD. They ended up achieving the same results but it was a challenge for to figure out what they had done. Thank god for all my shop manuals and the orginal instructions from MSD. Good luck.