truck won't start need help asap

[Littlebubba44]

background: 87 pickup with junkyard 88+ motor
just replaced with a running 350 with fuel injection
ran for a week (little rough) before replacing plugs,cap, rotor, and wires. Now it won't start and occasionally a small backfire through the carb. checked the wires to make sure they were in the right order (maybe using the wrong prong as #1 ???). my dad and grandfather both keep telling me the only ting they can think of is that it jumped timing? this possible or one in a billion?

need help and ideas as i need to get to school in the morning and work in the afternoon (important because meeting new customer)

 

[odin]

Are you sure the firing order is right? Sounds like the wires are crossed

 

[greg mgm]

If that's all you did, then you can rule out plugs. At worst, you may have switched 2 of the wires but at least it would start (although it'd run bad) So my opinion is something to do with the cap or rotor....unless the dist wasn't snug and it turned while you were working on it. Pull the rotor, recheck that it's indexed correctly, and push it back on. Check that the cap is also snug and in it's correct position. Let us know how it goes.

 

[Littlebubba44]

the dist was tight and we tried a good used cap, the one that came on it, and a brand new cap with brass studs. so unless i have teh order wrong? or it jumped time which i'll be honest and say i don't understand. can someone described the order (right now i have #1 right next to the coil pack)

 

[greg mgm]

Instead of describing what goes where...Here ya go-

 

[eagle mark]

That would only apply if the distributor was dropped in correctly. Number one could be anywhere!

 

[isaac]

not to sound like a smart ass but check if there is gas in the fuel tank i did this once when i first got my truck cause i had a faulty gas gauge. if not get your engine at top dead center ensure all your plugs wires are correct and try to turn it over. also check to see if your getting gas to the engine.

 

[odin]

That would only apply if the distributor was dropped in correctly. Number one could be anywhere!

Good point.
An easy way to see if its dropped correctly is to pull number 1 plug and put your finger over the hole and have someone bump the engine over until you feel the compression in the cylinder. Then pull the cap and see where the rotor is pointing, thats number 1 on the cap or close to it.

 

[Littlebubba44]

the distributor wasn't taken off just the cap and rotor so that can't go on wrong if i'm understanding correctly? and it's getting fuel into it.

 

[odin]

Do you have spark?

 

[Rollcenter]

Instead of describing what goes where...Here ya go-

Check for TDC pull all the plugs rotate the crank to TDC stick a screwdriver in #1 you will hit the piston now look at where the rotator cap is set you now have the #1 cylinder plug wire. The distributer rotates clockwise on GM counter clockwise on Ford

 

[Littlebubba44]

i have spark, not a hot spark (kinda yellowish). i'm leaning towards the timing being messed up. the problem is i can't work on it tonight and i need it for work in the morning... allways happens at the worst times lol

 

[greg mgm]

Right now, I'm dealing with a problem on my truck, which turned out be a bad fuel tank selector valve. It was running fine a week ago when I parked it, and now it doesn't start due to the bad valve. So my point is, there could be something else going on with your truck. I don't see how the timing could have got messed up. So, back to basics....Since it's getting spark, next is fuel. But, not sure how to check that on a throttle body. Can you hear the fuel pump running? And yes, problems always come up when you need the vehicle the most!

 

[AKbigsub]

This happened to my rig. It was getting spark and appeared to be getting fuel (but not a good spray from the injectors). I was advised to replace the fuel pump which did not fix it. It ended up being a bad ignition module (mounted inside the distributor).