Looking for some suggestions on a 94 B2300. Don't have much history on this one other than we got it for our teenage son to drive in high school and use to mow and do yard work with. The seller's deceased husband bought it at auction and got it running really well. The pickup ran really good the whole time our son drove it unless it rained and then would give him some trouble on occasion and would cut out every once in a while. It was put in storage a few years later after he inherited a car from my Dad. A couple of years later he sold it to my son in law and the pickup ran flawlessly after being stored. A year later our SIL got another vehicle and parked it. About a year later they were moving and when we tried to start it it, the engine would turn over but it wouldn't start. I could use starting fluid to get it to start but it acted like it wasn't getting any gas and would die in a few seconds. Fast forward to now, our daughter and SIL moved and we wound up towing it to our place as a project for our grandson. Now it won't turn over and the solenoid just clicks when we try to start it.

I do most of my own wrenching on our vehicles and have a couple of ideas on where to start but sure would appreciate other suggestions on a direction to start with. This is a low budget project and just throwing parts at it isn't really the direction I want to go.

TIA

 

Solenoid clicking but not start: Low battery, poor connections.

Fires on starting fluid, won't run: Fuel system clogged. Could be failed pump, bad filter, rust etc in tank that has made it's way into the lines and pump.

Is this an OBD II vehicle?

 

‘94 will still be OBD1


Those are my hunches also. Bad battery and expired gas, which of course, gums up everything in sight. So, probably time for a fuel filter at a minimum.

 

Appreciate your responses, I'm hoping to get my grandson over here in a day or two and we'll start by making sure the battery cables are making good contact and change out the fuel filter for starters. I'm excited about doing a project with the grandson and seeing him learn as we go along getting the pickup road worthy.

Thanks

 

need to put on battery charger 1st then get grandson over to check everything out. There is fuel rail schrader valve on the engine, takes a tire core tool to get out but you can also just push down on the core see if there is air in system and if fuel is being pumped. If runs bad in wet would guess its a bad coil/wires.

 

Given the history of sitting for long periods of time, I would think the fuel pump may have gotten a bit slowed down by deteriorating fuel. I would not mess with a filter until I knew the pump was functoinal or not.
The pump should run for several seconds when the key is turned from OFF to ON. Without going to START position, you can listen for the pump whirr by toggling back and forth to get it to run multiple times. That is also what you would do when you install a new pump and need to prime the system.
Anyway, the pump should make noise each time it cycles from OFF to ON. Each and every. If no noise, check the fuses and relays. I think the FPR is on the passenger side under the hood, hidden under a removable plastic shield. I do not own one.
All that said, if you can't get the pump to make noise, you can jumper two connections on the OBD-I terminal under the hood, again under the plastic shield. The top and bottom right terminals... I THINK. look it up. Should make the pump run continuously. Good to know if you need to pump out old stale fuel.
If it won't run, you will have to drop the tank for access. I had to remove the bed on my 85 as I could not access the pump, mounted on the 'front-top' of the tank. Not on the flat top, but on an angled surface at the front of the tank. Inaccessible except by moving the bed(6 LONT Torx) I propped the bed and slid it back as I was doing it by myself.
I needed to replace the float, not the pump.
You can replace the pump or the complete 'sender' including the pump and the float/variable resistor for the gauge. Be careful of the fuel line connectors as they will likely be very brittle and break if hit too hard by about anything.
Don't forget to check/reset the rollover switch on the passenger side, just above the footwell.(on the firewall).
tom