truck doesn't start anymore

[Savage]

last night i was parked at a gas station with my truck off (not putting any gas in it, just waiting with a friend to get gas in her car) started it up and drove off. well less than a quarter mile later the truck shut off so i was rolling in traffic now. i tried to be quick and start it with no luck. it wasn't until i came to a complete stop in the middle of the road with no shoulder to be in that it started back up. so we continued on our way and less than 15 minutes of running time it did this to me again but this time in a parking lot. however this time there was absolutely no possibility of it starting. another friend came to jump it (despite there being no real signs that there is anything wrong with the battery). this failed until about 5 minutes later and a whole lot of revving his engine, mine finally started. i drove it straight home (and the whole way it sounded different/like it wanted to shut off again). now it's the next morning and to no surprise the truck will not start outside my house

what makes this weird to me is the fact that the whole time all of this was happening last night, my lights/radio were on. and the voltmeter says the battery is fully charged.

could it be spark even if the truck was already running/driving when it first shut off?


tl;dr
my truck shut off on me twice while it was driving. now it won't start at all. apparently the battery is full charged.

[turner15]

first guess is a ground problem? Do you have a meter? Clean all the connections

[68longhorn]

Is the truck all stock? Do you have aftermarket ignition?

[PRattenbury]

Could be a bad coil.

[cableguy0]

Check your battery connections first and foremost. Make sure they are tight and not corroded. Check the power wire hooked to the distributor and make sure it isnt falling off.

[Savage]

Originally Posted by 68longhorn

Is the truck all stock? Do you have aftermarket ignition?

it is all stock. i'm going to go follow through with the other 3 posts. thanks guys

[68longhorn]

Yea, check what they said first. Good luck

[Savage]

wires are fine, battery isn't corroded (it's a few months old), doesn't seem to be a ground problem. also doesn't seem to be a fuel/fuel pump problem as putting starter fluid/gasoline in the carb should have at least started it for a second, no?

i forgot to mention in the first post that it does crank but there are 0 signs of the engine actually starting

[PRattenbury]

Do you have 12 volts at the coil? If so, do you get spark at the plugs? If you have 12 volts at the coil, and no spark at the plugs, the problem won't be hard to find.

[Savage]

Originally Posted by PRattenbury

Do you have 12 volts at the coil? If so, do you get spark at the plugs? If you have 12 volts at the coil, and no spark at the plugs, the problem won't be hard to find.

i don't have a meter here to be checking the volts but i was not seeing any spark or hearing any cracking noise when i had a screwdriver in one of the spark plug wires while trying to start it

i've been googling all day as well and i'm wondering if it could be the distributor cap

[joe231]

Uh, nevermind.

[primetime]

i would think to try the ignition module

[irishman999]

I had a similar problem with my 85. My buddy showed me a small control module in the dash above the glove box, could it possibly be that?

[PRattenbury]

Better get a meter. Trying to figure it out without one will drive you insane. They cost like 10 bucks.

[benoit454]

good thing about the older trucks if it don't start it's a fuel or electrical problem and if you dump gas down the carb flaps and it don't fire, you got electrical problems.

Have you pulled a plug, put the wire on it and had it laying on the block to watch for spark while cranking? If no spark then you may want to look at the wires, then back to the cap and rotor, coil, and ign. module. From what I know you can take the coil and module out and have them tested at an electric motor service place, or your local autozone, advanced, or oreilys maybe.

[68longhorn]

I believe the ESC (electronic spark control, the box under the dash) is only on 85-86 but not sure. If your distributor has 4 wires coming out of it with a connector about 6 inches away from the distributor you got it. If you have it, unplug the connector and jump pins A & C together on the distributor side. You definitely need to get a test light for checking out your truck.

[PRattenbury]

Maybe you should have put gas in the tank when you were at the station.

[benoit454]

84 also has the esc, my dad's 84 had it on it. I cut the said wires and spliced together when I put the 305 in the mcss I sold.

fyi if a wire is unhooked from this esc junk like the thin one that's by itself, it'll crank and not start, had that happen on the 86 k10 when we put a new motor in it.

[Savage]

ok, riddle me this: about an hour ago i went out to the truck to grab my ipod and figured "what the hell, lemme try to start it... maybe it's one of those things that just fixes itself". well sure enough it started right up and has been running normal ever since. now i'm definitely not complaining (and don't want to jinx it), but wtf?

and again, thanks for all the help. i just might still need it when it decides to die on me again in the middle of nowhere...

[grinch4om]

heat soak problem...go get an ignition module,(in the distributor) because this will happen again

[cableguy0]

I vote loose wire or bad module. When a module starts to go bad it will stop working when it gets hot. Sitting cold the truck will start up and run fine until you drive around for a while. After the module starts to get warm it will short internally causing the truck to stall.