What now?

[benscool1]

Went out today to go to a buddy's house to pick up some parts and on the way there the truck starts stalling and spitting and sputtering, so when I got to his house I changed the fuel filter(this has happened before, so i had an extra) and when I went home it was fine.

Well now(about 5 hours later) I went out to start the truck and as usual, it didn't want to start, but it's cold and it has always been like that so I go to the old starting procedue, pump gas 3 times, then hold it to the floor and turn key, if that does not work then just hold your foot the the floor and try again, until it starts. I finally got it to start and I had to rev it up a little bit for it to get up to idle and stay there, so I held it there for about a min, fluctuating the gas, lettin it warm up, sat in park for another minute. Went to put it in reverse and it jerked me back when it went into gear. I got about 4 blocks from home and it died out of nowhere. Usually when this happens I can just turn the key and it'll start but not now, it was worse then when I first start it in the morning. Got it goin and it died, so i started it again and it did this 2 more times in the 5 blocks from where I was to home. Pulled in the drive, it immediately died.

So now I have it sitting out in the driveway idling trying to see what it could be. Any ideas? It seemed like the idle was high earlier today when I was driving it after I changed the fuel filter. . . Also, it was backfiring which it has never done before. Help!

[magnethead]

if it idles fine but just doesnt want to run worth crap off idle, i'd look at the choke & air cleaner to start things off.

[Russell]

Check the timing, and choke... When I forgot to hook my choke up once, the truck barely ran until I got it working again, it would idle fine, but would not run if you put it in drive / tried to accelerate. Timing could also cause such issues, or possibly a module / coil on their way out in the HEI

[Boog]

There can be a number of things causing this prob. When was the last complete tuneup? Plugs, plug wires, dist cap, rotor? As Russell said the module or coil can be going bad in the dist. I'd pull the dist cap off and give it a good looking over, cap, rotor and the centrifugal advance weights under the rotor. The advance weights are spring loaded and should move freely and spring back. If not the shaft may be gummed up down in the dist. It must move freely, no sticking. They don't run good without timing advance.
Has the fuel ran over and out of the carb like maybe the float sticking causing it to flood. Can be some trash got by the filters.