Just got the truck from a family member. Running cond. seems fine except for this one thing that is starting to get to me.

It fires right up first thing in the morning. Then, after a mile or two it will just shut down and become really hard to start. I have to use a few sprays of starting fluid to get it to fire. It turns over fine, just won't fire.

After this "morning experience," the truck starts fine throughout the day. Sure is a rough way to start your day however. Really frustrating.

Anyone have any ideas on what to check on this? Thanks in advance.

 

Sounds like it is the notorious splice. Check the FAQ in this section for more details.

 

Thanks Crazy, will do. Some mentioning of the distributor pickup has also shown up in my surfing. I'll check out the FAQ's on the splice thing.

 

Well, I started out with the splice looking for any obvious arcing, damage, corrosion, etc. and couldn't find any. The black you see is the glue from the wrap. I haven't checked a couple of remaining splices yet, had to take a break.

The splices "look" decent, should I redo them regardless?

 

next morning try priming the fuel pump and see if that helps at all. turn the key on, listen to it prime, then turn it off. do this 2 or 3 times and see if it starts easier. worth trying. as far as the splices go, if you have time to redo them it wont hurt anything, but if they look good it may not be worth doing at this time. Since you do have it all pulled apart, again it couldnt hurt.

 

Thanks issaker. The fuel pump is brand new and it has no trouble starting first thing in the morning, it fires right up. Just when I drive a 1/2 mile to the store, shut it off, go in and right back out, it would turn over, but not fire. Same thing today when I went to a neighbor's down the street except I left it running while I ran in there for just a sec. As soon as I started backing down the driveway, she shut down and would only fire with starting fluid. Aggravating!

 

That sounds oh too familiar. I just recently battled that gremlin. long story short is it turned out to be a bad wire to the fuel pump. Rewired it and now its good. Next time it give you problems if you have time check voltage at the pump; you should be getting 12v when the key is turned over. Check fuel pressure at the fuel rail too. There is a schrader valve on the driver side of the fuel rail.

 

Will do issakar, thanks.

 

NP man, let us know what you find out!