I just bought a new to me truck for my son and I to fix up. I recently had a brain tumor and he wants this as a me and dad project he can have forever and remember me by in the future should anything else happen. It has the 300 4.9 carb. Has manual transmission 4x4. It turns over and has spark but will not run.

If I spray starting fluid in the carb the engine does not want to turn over. It is like it gets to much compression for the starter to turn over until the starting fluid evaporates. Even if I try a small shot of gas etc the same things happens can be turning over great and then a small amount of gas in the throat of carb and it is like a instant dead battery it is so hard to turn over.

What could this be and what to check first.

The guy said it would turn over but not start. He put new fuel pump on it, new wires, plugs, distributor cap, etc.
Have not check to see if fuel pump was pumping since it get fuel in carb and doesn't want to turn over.

Thanks in advance.
Tim.

 

Tim, welcome to FTE
Sorry to hear of your issue and it took that to bring you and your son closer but as they say better late than never.


It sounds like the timing is too far advance but need a little more information.


You say carb but that year was a "feed back" system, the carb & dist. gets signals from a computer of sorts.
Does the carb have a lot of wires going to it and does the dist. have a vacuum line to it?
or could you post up some pictures of the carb & 1 of the dist. To see if you still have them in place.


That will help us point you the way to go.
Dave ----

 

Put a mark on the dist somewhere and measure from that mark to something on the engine that doesn't move. Just to mark where you started. Then loosen the dist and turn it a little bit one way and see if the problem gets better or worse. Worse, turn it the other way. You will have to do this rough adjustment till you get it to run, you can't set the timing without it running.

You do have a computer controlled engine, unless someone has converted it. The majority of these engines have a bunch of stuff disconnected, but they still have the computer controlled distributor and carb, so they do not run well. You can convert it over to a older simpler system.

If you do still have the original computer controlled dist, if you want keep it for now and set the timing with a light, you will need to disconnect the spout connector first before trying to set the timing(once you get it running).