I was pulling some big shrubs out with the truck (86 w150 318 auto) and it stalled out on a hard jerk. Went to start it and it's trying but nothing. Starter sounds weak now, very whiney. Occasionally while trying it will cut out and try to pick up again. I'm letting it cool down now hoping it just needed a rest. I went and got a load of shale earlier, its been working all day lol. Anybody else have this happen to them?

 

ONCE, when my coil went out.

 

Unfortunately I don't think it has to do with the ignition. After letting it sit a while I took off the starter to make sure the teeth looked ok (they were) I put it back on. It would crank over and start to catch for a second and died again. The bad part is that I'm thinking either timing jumped when I jerked it or the chain just broke because its sounds like valves on pistons. I'm going to tear it down and see what happened and probably start to hunt for a new engine.

 

take the distributor cap off and get someone to hit the starter. if the timing chain is broke the rotor on the distributor will not move at all. if it moves the problem could be somewhere else.

 

Thanks wolfie, I will try that the next time my dad is out to my place.