i have a 1986 f-150 with the 302 and im not exactly sure which tranny it is , but the gear selector looks like this r-n-od(d w/white cirlce)-2-1

the other day on the way to work while in od the truck quit running , i carefully got it pulled over to a parking lot , and i tohught maybe it was out of fuel so i changed over to the othertank, started right up and i put it in od and it dies, over and over it did this , so eventually i got the idea tto put it in 1 gear, and it ran fine. i had to get to work so i didnt have the time ot take a look at it , until this after noon.
the tranny fluid is fine , doesnt smell burnt or anytihng and is the proper color, and proper fill level.
well i drove it home , started out in od and drive like it usually did for a few minutes , then it started sputering like it was going to die again, so i drop it into d and it drove fine for a few miles , then started doing the same thing. came ot a light and it dies . i get it started and put it into 1 gear again and dies , so i rev it up good and put it into 1 gear to get out of the intersection , and then put it into d and it drove fine the last 5 miles to home.

i need help figuring out where ot start to look for problems.
i originally thought it was a tranny problem , but the more i tihnk of it , im thikning it might be a fuel delivery problem, or something.

has anyone else had there vehicle do this and what did you do to fix it .

my other idea is it might need a new tranny filter , if this has one . or maybe the tranny is shot and its on its last leg. i have no clue , but i need to find a place to start to figure it out.

please help.

airrikk17

 

If you ran it dry in one tank, then it may have sucked up some rust or dirt and clogged the fuel filter.

If you can keep it running, you can do a self test on the computer and see if your truck is throwing any codes. All you need is a paper clip, a light bulb and some wire.

 

Maybe a vacumn leak, in park it may rev high enough to overcome it, but in gear it may not. My truck had an intermittent vacumn leak, it was a hose that was cracked halfway through, and when I hit a bump, my heater hose would bump it and open the crack. The next bump would move the hose the other way, and the truck would run normal again.

 

well i may have solved the problem, or at least its running , and running better then it ever has .


when i bought the truck from a co owrked , he told me it had a 351 , upon inspection and checking the tags inside the engine compartment, it said it wasa 5.0 (302), after trying to get the right spark plugs for a 302 , and them not being correct , then getting plugs for a 351 , and them not being right , we were baffled so we brought the old plugs in and matched them up , spparetnly they are plugs for the 351 , jsut not common ones.
well this should have brought out a few flags in my mind , but of course im hard headed , the tag says 5.0 , so it must be.
then after buying a cap and rotor , that didnt fit , i shoudl have figured it out from there. but oh no, not me.
so , then comes the timing after removing the distributor to fix a oil pan problem, my buddy , loses the spot where it was supposed to be, so after doing the whole tdc thing and hooking up the plug wires and such , it runs a bit rough , so i buy a timing light and get it working pretty good , a bit sluggish ,but with 35's and stock gears , i figured that was why.
then the problem starts with it stalling on me and only going in 1first gear and such .
again remeber this whole time during the timing process im thikning its a 302 , well after getting really frustrated and thinknig anything will work better then it is , i hook up the wires o nthe cap as if its a 351 , and guess what , the truck runs like a dream now .
no stalling , so spurting , and even has a bit more power.
i guessing the previous owner swapped in a 351 , but ive got a phone call into him jsut to make sure .
anyways , its running good now , and my head ache is just starting to go away .

thanks for the suggestions ,

airrikk17

 

It could still be a 302, an easy way to tell is to measure the width of the intake manifold. I had that same plug wire problem on my 95 F-150 with a 302. I bought new plugs and wires, and 2 of the plugs were bad out of the box, but I checked the wires, and noticed some were off according to the 302 diagram, truck still ran bad, put in old plugs, still ran bad, used 351 firing order, problem solved. I can't remember why ford did that, maybe something about equalizing stress on the crank.......

 

well it did it ot me again, again on the rear tank. i think there is something floatingi n the reartank that gets sucked into the pickup or something , ran fine on the front tank.

guess its time to drop the rear tank and find out for sure.

airrikk17