guage

1st check the firing order is correct..2nd pull spark plugs 2 visually inspect for abnormal color (black..running rich or white ..head gasket or intake coolant leak). If ok then check cylinder compression wet & dry and 3rd make sure you have good fuel pressure at idle as all this needs to be eliminated to ensure the engine is in good working order. Common sense rules here. Once these items have been checked and ruled out as a cause of your problem then you proceed to the next step. Your other posts where conflicting as far as the engine stall out. I assumed the vehicle wouldn't drive, but by the sound of what your saying you have a possible vacuum leak or other internal engine problem. Do all these things one at a time and let me know what you find.

klricks

A couple of things to check:

On the front passenger side wheel well and near the air pump there is a bundle of 4 vacuum lines. There is a plastic coupler that splices the 4 lines together 4 in and 4 out. It may be covered by wire loom material. A couple of times that coupler on my '86 came loose and the engine would barely run.

When I was having tank problems my high pressure fuel pump was making a whine noise because one of the in-tank pumps was not working. There is a 3" piece of rubber hose that connects the tank pump to the metal fuel line pipe on the sender. That rubber hose had completely dissolved away leaving the in-tank pump just swirling the gas in the tank and doing nothing except sending bits of debris through the fuel system. When the in tank pump does not work for whatever reason, then in my case, the engine would sputter and cut out especially over 50 mph.

walter34payton2002

WANNA PLAY A GAME???????????? GREAT.

GUESS WHAT THIS IS...........

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As you can see, things are going well so far.

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Here is the frozen beer I was supposed to drink, but couldn't because it took 2 hours to do that damage and I forgot about the beer. I opened it and BOOM. The imports just don't do that. Perhaps it was the can. Here is your clue......

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Yes, if you said a distributor gear then you win!!! Awesome!!!!!! SO MUCH FUN!!!!!

Here is the deal. This thing was super wedged in there to the tune I've never seen in my 31 years of life. I finally got it out. However, notice that the oil already penetrated the broken parts? I believe these were broken on the inside prior and I finished it off. So...........I went to the junkyard and pulled one today. It came off very easily. Hmmmm. Here is something very important to know for anyone who is going to replace a gear on these distributors. There are different materials Ford decided to use. SURPRISE!!! No. They used bronze, polymer, billet steel, and cast iron. Now, If you have a tappet motor then you should use cast iron or weaker so as not to wear the cam. However, if you have the roller cam, then you can use steel gear. I believe that came out in 92, but someone here will correct me. Anyway, from the looks of it the one I pulled off my distributor is steel, but I can't tell. I need to go to the machine shop and have them press the new one on. I believe the new one to be cast iron. Can't tell yet, but if it is steel then 2 things- 1. I got a roller cam or 2. someone put wrongo distributor gear in. I looked in the hole where dist. came out and the teeth seem ok. I am gonna get this thing to a machine shop tomorrow and I hope they can clarify this for me.

Rough_Ford Tough

Check ur plug wires to see that they are in order. Firing order on a 351 and 302 engine with the High Output (HO) is: 1,3,7,2,6,5,4,8. The engine year probably has the roller cam. Just like the 1987 Lincoln Continental 302 roller cam w/o HO installed in my '81 F-150. The timing on my 302 w/o HO is: 1,5,4,2,6,3,7,8. The manifold should have the firing order stamped on it. Check this out along with the timing. The you may want to check clogged catalyst converter if it has one or the O2 sensor. Check vacuum line go'n to tranny. Thats my quess. Good luck.

walter34payton2002

OK. WOW guys. A lot to report. I got a gear from the junkyard (cast iron). I had a machine shop press it on. After replacing my distributor to where it was it didn't run right. I just decided to retime it. After placing cyl 1 at TDC on compression stroke and placing dist. w rotor facing wire 1 and verifying firing order, truck would sputter, not run right or die. I must have pulled and retimed 15 times. I even tried on the exhaust stroke just in case I messed up. Nothing just sputtering, sometimes backfiring, ect. Got in forum and guys said set cyl 10 degrees BTDC disconnect spout set at cyl 1. Tried that too, same problem. Then it wouldn't start at all. I would try starting fluid and it would run on a cylinder or 2 for a second and die. THEN.....I put some more gas in it. Fired up. I warmed it and then shut off. Disconnected SPOUT and started. Shut off. Set cyl 1 to 10 degrees BTDC, replaced dist. in again w rotor pointing to cyl 1, reconnected SPOUT and started. Started fine seemed to run fine. When I hit gas fairly quickly its as if I shut the truck off, but it didn't die just takes a few seconds to "catch up" to the throttle but not in a way where timing is retarded but like you hit throttle too much and seems like not enough fuel. If I rev slowly, no problem, nice and responsive. GUESS WHAT ELSE...........NO MORE RPMS SHOOTING DOWN WHEN I PUT IT IN GEAR OR WANTING TO DIE IN GEAR. Looks like that problem was the timing. BUT.....I believe I now have left a fuel delivery issue. I plan to take down the tank, clean it, and replace the in tank pump and sending unit. I will blow out lines too and put in one more new filter. I really believe it is fuel and not timing, but I need to get a timing light and fine tune the timing. But it is weird. If I hit the throttle fairly quickly its as if the truck just stops, but let it go and it comes right back. Rev it slowly and no problem. If I hit throttle quickly and hold it at a point, it will pause......like shut off.....then sputter. I would think fuel, but man I tell ya, the dying in gear thing was the timing. I also replaced coil, but when I did it still did the dies in gear thing (previous to putting distributor in).

walter34payton2002

I took the tank down today and it all makes sense now. Remember when I said that I had to add gas, but the damn thing had plenty of gas in the tank (I know, but sending unit out so). Weird that I couldn't get truck started and I was thinking that I was not getting timing right installing distributor. Well here are some pics of my sending unit/ in tank pump combo. Tell me what you notice.....






Notice in the first picture the line on the pump and the line that takes fuel to the frame mounted pump. Yes, the rubber hose that joins them is missing!!!! So, pump was spraying gas back into tank, new frame pump was pulling gas through the metal line above the tank pump and when gas level would drop below the metal gas line, sputters and dies. THAT IS DEFINITELY AN ISSUE. Now....if I can just get Klricks to deliver the goods on the timing questions I think I got this thing nailed. Whoooooooo hooooooo. Wait.....I shouldn't celebrate yet that would be stupid. Whoooooooooooooooooohoooooooooooooooooooooooooowee eeeeeeeeeee!!!!

klricks

That is exactly what happened to the sending unit on my rear tank as I mentioned in post #42 above. When the tank pump does not work then the HP fuel pump will strain to get enough fuel. Idles OK but can't get enough fuel for higher speeds.

I tried to clean all the junk from the tank for a couple of days then gave up and bought a new tank and new sending unit with pump. Note that they sell the sending units with or without the pump. So be sure to get the one with the pump ~$120.00 at Autozone.