I jave a 73 f100 with a 390 2bbl and a c6 tranny. I will be driving around and at completely random times the truck acts like it had no gas at all but I know it has gas I just put 20$ in it. The truck does have an electric fuel pump. I was thinking that maybe I need a new fuel filter or maybe the fuel pump itself has gone out. I just want to know if anyone else has any ideas

 

Does it go dead, or just sputter, or what symptoms. The more descriptive you can be the easier it will be for us to help diagnose it. Do you have dual tanks?

My '79 had an issue with random dying and I traced it back to a bald spot on one of my wires that was grounding out my coil at random when I would hit a bump or somthing.

George

 

It will start to sputter and then die. If there is an incline or a decline or a lfat it doesn't matter nor does the speed at total random moments.

I replaced the condensor, points, cap, rotor, plugs, and wires.

 

You're not buying fuel from bradley's on 2nd street are you? I ran some of their gas in my V-10 Superduty and it ran so poorly I barely made it to Buffalo on a tank. They are known to have issues with water in their fuel which can cause similiar issues.

It could be a clogged fuel filter?

Water in fuel (run some heet, yellow bottle to eliminate this as a possability)

Have you checked your float in the carb? If the float is sticking it could starve you out or flood you out depending on which way it sticks.

The way it hits gradually, IE sputter then fail, it sounds like a fuel related issue. Usually spark related stuff will hit sudden although I have seen exceptions.

How much rubber fuel line do you have on the vacuum side of the fuel pump? I have had issue with the fuel line collapsing and not allowing the pump to suck fuel. This usually happens with older hose, but is possible even with newer hose especially with the ethanol in the gas now. For some reason the newer gas seems more prone to eating at rubber in my experience.

That's about all the thoughts I have for now. Keep us informed as you continue to work on it and we'll get it running good before long I'm sure.

George

 

thanx for all the help I didnt even think about using heet. NO I have been using common cents gas it seems to be the best in towm.

I will check the fuel lines and I will check the filter as well. Let you know what I find

 

Did you set the points with a feeler gauge and check the timing with a light afterwards? These two procedures have to go hand-in-hand.

 

aye everything was set for lack of a better word perfect

 

Sounds good. The next time it dies, I'd pull off the air horn of the carburetor and make sure there is fuel in the bowl. That's one nice thing about Motorcraft 2-barrel's; you can leave them on the intake and still open them up. It would be easier to simply look down the throat of the carburetor after the engine dies and make sure you get two good streams of gas shoot against the venturis when you open the throttle, but that only tells you if there is fuel in the accelerator pump chamber, which there can be even if the bowl doesn't fill up. But you can at least try that first, and if you don't see any gas then you definitely know you're not getting fuel. My point is, making sure the accelerator pump works doesn't necessarily tell you that the bowl has enough fuel.

 

Thanks for the idea I think I am going to go on a parts run and hope it dies lol.

 

[quote=fmc400;8117888]Sounds good. The next time it dies, I'd pull off the air horn of the carburetor and make sure there is fuel in the bowl. That's one nice thing about Motorcraft 2-barrel's; you can leave them on the intake and still open them up.[quote]
Thank you especially for this it got the truck fixed in the end.

Parked the truck last night and let it sit because working on a truck when depressed angry or whatever, just never turns out right. First thing we did today was make my carb go topless for awhile. Turned the key and the electric pump started to fill the bowl. No problem yet. Pushed the pump a few times to make sure the accel. pump was working correctly, it was. So the next step was to try and figure out where my fuel starvation was. Started to follow the fuel lines back when we noticed sever worm clamps on the rubber line were mashed almost closed. We pulled them apart and found some copper tubing that some PO had shoved in the line to use multiple shorter pieces of fuel line was my guess. So I re-ran all my rubber line, unhooked the electric pump and installed a mechanical one, replaced the fuel filter, and the coil for good measure.

But it even fixed the small miss and coughing I had, had.

So thank you to everyone for your help and I can't wait to go to work tonight and drive my little baby girl around blasting george jones.

 

Sweet! I'm betting money it was the cobbled together fuel line. I have seen more than once where a substandard fuel line was collapsing and not letting the pump pull the fuel out of the tank.

Either way, glad to hear that you got it fixed up. Now go enjoy the Possum.

George

 

Aye sounds like a good deal

 

That's awesome. I'm happy to hear you got it fixed.

 

And I just finished driving for the night and guess what drove a total of 80 miles tonight after got it fixed and NO problems at all, completely perfect