I bought this van new and replace the engine about 2 years ago (put about 9000 mi so far) and yesterday it just wouldn't start. Its getting gas but I think its something in the electrical system, any help would be appreciated.

 

Check to see if you have spark. If none, then the problem is either your ignition coil to the spark plugs or the inductive pickup inside of the distributor; I've had two of the latter, the pickup, go bad on both of my '77 B100 Tradesman vans.

The test is simple and you'll need a multimeter that tests resistance. Remove the engine cover. You'll note two wires exiting the distributor terminating at a plug six inches away or so. Unplug the wires and test for continuity (resistance) across both of those wires that exit the distributor. If the resistance is infinite then you have a bad pickup that costs approx $25 to replace along with about an hour and a half of your time.

This burn-out is caused by one side of the ballast resistor which is actually two resistors placed into the unit. One resistor is .5 ohms and it feeds that pickup in the distributor that's burnt out; and, the other around 5 ohms or so that feeds the control box mounted on the firewall. It was found that 0.5 ohms allows too much electricity to the pickup and so an upgrade to 1.25 ohms was made.

Therefore replace not only the pickup in the distributor but also replace your ballast resister for the new upgrade. HTH.

-T