i bought an 89 f250 4x4 last week. it has a 351 c6 and i am pretty sure it is a heavy duty the gross veh weight is 8600 lbs and the rear hubs stick out further the wheels (which i read on another post is a good way to tell what you have). this is my 3rd ford pickup, 2001 ford ranger edge, 1988 f150 2wd i6. i think that alot of the problems it haas are due to fact that the last owners owned it since nov 99 and they only put about 20000 miles on it so it has been driven much. i think she needs some tlc and to be driven.


but monday i started it to go to work and it started and ran just fine. at 10 am i went out to start it and it started ran for a second and died. started up again and it died again. so i disconnected the battery and left it unhooked for about 2.5 hrs and then rehooked it up and it fired right up and ran fine. took it for a drive and was going to turn around to go back to work and it died in the middle of the road. got it fired up and drove it back to work. after work it fired right up and ran fine. that night i changed the fuel filter and put some dry gas and fuel injector cleaner in it and it has ran fine ever since.

today after work i went to go start it up to come home and i turned the key to start it and nothing. had all the dash lights, radio, dome light, fuel pump kicked on but nothing. so i thought it was the solienod relay on the fender so i had my brother in law go and get on for me and bring it out to me. i put it on and nothing so i thought it was time to take the starter off and take it to get it checked out. i ran into the shop to grab a couple of wrenches and was coming back out and he got s.o.b. fired up. i asked him what he did and he said he did not know he was in playing with the key and put the gear shift into neutral and back into park and it fired up. and i shut it off and restarted it 5-6 different times and has not done it since.

my questions are has this happened to anybody else? and w

 

Sounds like you may have two problems.
For the no crank condition, on the solenoid there is the small terminal and wire that has a push on connector. When you turn the ignition key to start, you should have 12 volts on that wire. That cause the relay/solenoid to close and apply 12 volts to the starter motor. The 12 volts comes from the ignition switch.

Since your brother in law was moving the shifter around, it could be a bad neutral safety switch, (try startiing in neutral next time) or it could be a bad or misadjusted ignition switch which is located under the dash and mounted ion the middle of the steering column. When your turn the ignition key, a rod moves the ignition switch.

As for the stalling and no restart problem. When the problem occurs, you need to find out if you have a no spark problem or a fuel problem. Take a spark plug and connect one of one of the spark plug wires to it and lay the spark plug on the engine (metal part) and crank the engine. See if you have a good spark.

Carry some starting fluid. Maually open the throttle body and spray some starting fluid inside it. If the engine fires, you have a fuel problem.

Purchase a digital voltmeter so you can check voltages.
Also clean the battery terminals.

 

thanks i will have to try those.
today i was able to recreate the no start thing at work and i believe that the truck thought it was still in gear. and also it did start when in neutral.

i also believe that some of the problems are because the people who owned it before hardly drove it. this weekend i hope to put a cap, rotor, plugs and plug wires on it.

i guess all in all it is a good truck i just have to work all the kinks out of it. i only payed $500 for it and the tires are in good shape, four wheel drive works, bed is solid.

 

get motorcraft ignition parts and plugs.

 

yeah, i only put motorcraft parts on my car and truck (both fords).