My 88 F250 4x4 (351 / C6) had been running fine so I was surprised
(and then pissed) when I got a few blocks away from my house this
morning and the engine suddenly went out. There was no strange
sounds or performance issues before she died. I tried restarting her
several times but all she would do was crank. Good thing it was a
short walk home. When I went back a few hours later I first tried
just to start the engine but, once again, had no luck. I then popped
the hood and tried reseating and wiggling just about every wire I
could get my hands on. I jumped back into the cab and she fired
right up.

At this point I don't think my messing with the wires really did
anything. All my wires and contacts already seemed to be clean and
tight and are relatively new. I pulled the codes and the only thing
that came up was a 23 (Throttle Position Sensor out of range) in
continuous memory. That doesn't sound like something that would
cause this type of problem. My truck seems to be working okay now
(I've tried starting it several times with no problems) but I'm
paranoid about driving it that far for fear of getting stranded.
Does anyone have any ideas on what may have cause this problem and
what I should check?

Thanks!

 

I would say either the coil or the PIP inside the distributor. If it wouldn't of restarted I would say the ignition module on the side of the distributor, but usually when the distributor mounted ignition module dies it's dead for good. Although I wouldn't totally rule out the ignition module. You can't really test these components, because if they are in a live state when tested they will likely test good anyway.

 

Check the condition of the wires on the EEC and fuel pump relays, My truck stranded me last summer because the main power wire coroded off the FP relay.

 

Thanks! I'll check out the wires again. I replaced the entire distributor last year so I don't think that was the problem. Before I did the engine would cut out after she heated up. What's strange this time is that I had only driven a few blocks and nothing really had a chance to heat up..