I have 1973 F250 360 4x4. I am trying to start truck after sitting for 15 years. I dont have a key or wire harness since FIL fried it. I've tried jumping it from the solenoid by the battery but all it does is crank wont fire up. If you message me I can send you video but I cannot post here. Let me know of any ideas what to do next.

 

Spray a shot of starting fluid down the carburetor and see if it pops, that will let you know if you have spark. Spark, fuel and air is all you need to make that thing run.

 

I've done the starting fluid thing, it'll hit at first but then it goes to just cranking...

 

What have you done so far?

did you clean the tank, filter and check hoses?
is the carb in need of service?

 

Do you have power to the coil?

 

I hooked a wire from coil to battery. Tank wise I haven't dont anything yet. Can I bypass using tank to get it to just fire up? I haven't touched carburetor. I replaced alternator, starter, power steering pump, water pump and distributor. Any thing else I should do?

 

Yes, you can disconnect the fuel inlet to the mechanical fuel pump and feed it into a can of fresh fuel. I would disconnect it at the carburetor and turn the engine over with the feed into the gas can to verify that you are in fact getting fuel to the carburetor. It is unlikely unless there are internal leaks that it won't run at least for a minute, carbs don't magically make adjustments to themselves. If you are not getting any fuel at that carburetor, then the fuel pump is bad and I would replace it and as a precaution, change the oil as the mechanical pumps are known to leak internally and allow fuel into the engine oil. In the meantime, if there is an inline fuel filter from the pump to that carburetor, I would completely bypass it for now.

You have confirmed that you have spark and that there is some kind of timing due to it popping off. That would be my next step.

 

If you want to upload the video, upload it to YouTube then paste the link here

 

Heres video..

 

Can you verify that you are getting fuel at that carburetor? Sounds like the pump is not flowing fuel.

 

Have you looked down the throat of the carb while you manipulate the throttle to see that fuel is squirting from the accelerator pump?
I know you've put gas right into the carb, but wondering if it's getting there from the pump too. Fuel pumps absolutely hate sitting for 15 years. Even the old ones when they were made better. Nowadays if you let a fairly new pump sit for two or three years on today's fuels, they likely will need to be replaced.

But spark is probably the most likely. You should not have needed a new alternator, so I'm guessing you just replaced that because the old one was looking pretty nasty.
A new distributor though? New wires too? Was the old one bad? Is it an original type with points and condenser? Reason I mention changing to new parts is that sometimes the new stuff is worse than the old these days! Yep, it's that bad...
Did you verify the firing order when you put the cap and wires back on? And you're familiar with Ford firing orders and cylinder locations, not just used to working on other brand vehicles? This difference catches many people off-guard, which is why I bring it up.
Did you verify timing with a timing light after the new distributor install? What about setting the gap/dwell on the points?
And during the cranking, have you tried twisting the distributor a little either way to see if it changes anything? Maybe coughing a few more times?

You definitely need to verify spark. Just having a wire to the coil does not guarantee it's all working. Sometimes even the small stuff you would not think about can cause a no-spark situation. A bad condenser in the new distributor could do it. So could a bad radio noise suppressor on the coil.
All of that is mainly about spark of course, but that's kind of what it sounds like at the moment.

Good luck. And welcome to the forums too!

Paul

 

x2 on verifying the spark first. Actually, I'd always change the oil on something that has been sitting so long first.

If you are getting a nice hot spark, squirt some fuel into the carb. Does that make it sound like it wants to run (or run for a few seconds)?

 

Ok, Fellas. I am no mechanic. I'm good at replacing parts and watching you tube and following directions but the actual know how I lack. With that said..
How do you verify spark? I did take off dist cap off and cranked it and the was a small spark on top of distributor. Is there another way to verify spark? Should I replace the fuel pump? If you were at my crossroads, what would the next step?

 

Pull a plug wire off and ground a spark plug out while having someone crank it over. You should see a nice strong blue spark come off that spark plug.

 

I have squirted fuel and starting fluid into carb and it does seem to want to run but then it just goes back to video(cranking) it doesnt run..