ok....lucky I am not. Started van, wiggled TFI and the wires going/coming from/to it and it stayed running. drove around the block about twice and started idling low and died. test light to fuse energized by ignition was still lit. Get back home and let it sit for a minute while i check wires and stuff and try to start it with no luck....have backfiring from throttle (from pressing on gas while trying to start i guess). It's like either its not getting fuel or the fuel isn't detonating. I don't smell fuel from repeated start attempts...would pressing the shrader valve in after trying to start it to see if there is any pressure? Or would that be a faulty reading due to it running and dying and perhaps the fuel is pressurized from that? But from what I can gather it's either fuel not reaching where it needs to go or I'm just not getting a spark. Sometimes when it does start after having died it is real sluggish, coughing and then dying. I guess those are symptoms of fuel or not enough fuel reaching it's destination? The backfiring from the throttle is probably too much gas from me pressing the gas pedal while trying to start it? Does electrical current travel constantly to the external pump with key in on position? I put a test light to both electrical prongs of the external fuel pump and got no light while KOEO. FYI:TP and EGR Position sensors new, IAC valve new, fuel pump relay and eec relay new, external pump and filter new. I know it's none of those because they all worked while the van was dying and I replaced them all and the van still dies. It's times like this that a bicycle comes in handy. But I'm determined to figure this out whether it kills me or not. Thanks for your help, Hanky....but Im back to square 1 again. Im gonna try what you mentioned with the OBD test and energizing the fuel pump but first I am gonna search for a diagram on the electrical aspect of the fuel system so I can check every wire running from the tanks to wherever they end up at.

 

Backfiring does not usually come from a fuel related problem , but from an ignition problem.
Spark is getting to the wrong cylinders when the piston is on the intake stroke if its backfiring through the throttle body.
What did you do and find with the ignition module and wiring?
What was the condition of the plug on the ignition module?
Do you know how to check for spark? If you do , when the engine quits if you cannot restart it right away check if you have spark available from the wire coming off the coil going to the distributor. If you have spark and it still will not start only then would I go to the fuel system. Also if you have some carb and choke cleaner when it won't start spray a shot of cleaner into the air cleaner snorkel then if it starts momentarily , yes its a fuel problem.

 

I have spark and sprayed the throttle and it started. you're right, fuel issue. where is the low pressure fuel pump? which tank, the back one? and remember that black plastic cylinder close to the external fuel pump? Fuel filter accumulator. I'm leaning to the low pump being faulty....im not too familiar with how the fuel pumps work in conjunction with each other along with that accumulator which i guess has something with recirculating gas back to the tank, but yes, i too think it's the fuel system. specifically the low pressure pump. I have an in-tank pump and sending unit from another e150 club wagon same year but as I said I don't know which tank has the low pump or whether they both contain low pumps with the external being the high pump?

 

fuel PRESSURE accumulator

 

There is a low pressure pump in each tank. What method does your truck use to switch tanks? Some only had a switch on the dash , some had a valve on the floor also.
Have you ever been able to use the truck with both tanks ? I don't know all the history , but I am questioning if one of the pumps was not working and you always ran from the good working tank /pump and now the second may be failing and you could have two bad pumps. I still don't know what you are hearing when you say the pump noise stops just before the engine quits.
Were you able to jump the plug and get the vehicle started right away when you did that?

 

Good Morning. I have a switch under the dash to switch from tank to tank. The rear tank's gauge doesn't work (but it does have gas) and the front one does. I alternately switch tanks but am unsure if I ever ran it with the rear tank pumping to check and see if it dies out. Sorry about the noise....it turns out to be just the power steering pump whining; not the external fuel pump. I hear the external pump energizing before I crank the van over. I'm gonna run a jumper from the OBD to check the external pump (Im assuming that the port on the ODB for the fuel pump deals with the external pump). Before I do that I think I will run it on the rear tank and see if it cuts out or not. The history of the vehicle in a nut shell is this: friend owned it at about 70k. He said some actulators inside the steering column needed to be replaced so him and his brother just replaced the steering column with a 1983 column. Then he backed up into a ditch and bent down the rear bumper. The rear tank fuel gauge never worked prior to him getting the van. He says he went for an oil change and that's when it started cutting off. He replaced the filter and external pump to no avail. He also dropped a screw driver across the battery and shorted some stuff out (heater blower motor relay, radio, horn...that Im aware of). I get the van at 108k and it runs for a couple days without dying and then starts dying. I run an ODB1 test and it comes back air control fault. I replace the IAC and it runs like a champ for about two weeks until one day it was warm and it died. Replaced the TP and EGR position sensors-assuming that was the problem-but it wasn't. I originally replaced teh fuel pump and eec relays because it seemed that by wiggling them the engine was hestitating and stumbling (but it wasn't due to faulty relays). I went over the entire top of the engine to be assure that all wires and connectors were ok. I can switch from tank to tank when it dies and it will not crank over until I wait 30 seconds to a couple minutes. So when it dies neither tank operates until after the waiting period.

 

ok, ran the van for about twenty minutes on the rear tank...no cut off....but no cut off either on the front tank. What I noticed and now what I firmly believe is that when revving the engine, after it idles back down I noticed a rattling noise. Kept listening out of the passenger window while revving and heard it some more. Tapped the cat and it rattles. My thought is that when i mentioned that it backfired from the throttle area it was the cat causing backfire. So, apparently the cat is bad with a loose cone inside and perhaps it is getting hot and clogging the exhaust pipe.....does that sound right? I'm not too familiar with the various symptoms of a bad cat but that's the only logical thing I can come up with.....what's your opinion on this, Hanky? Do you think the cat is clogged causing it to either die/stall while driving because it clogs the exhaust and/or heats up and clogs the exhaust during idling? I don't know how the inside of the cat works but this is what I'm assuming. The exhaust pipe was broken when I got the van.....around 18-20 inches down from the cat. I replaced that awhile ago...maybe something climbed up in there...who knows.....

 

Boy I guess I asked for the history and I got it!
I have yet to see a converter allow a vehicle to run and then shut down. Usually they just have no power and won't rev up if the converter is plugged.
I am seriously considering a problem with the computer opening up after it gets hot enough. When the truck quits can you hear the fuel pump run for the two seconds each time you turn on the ign? (There is approx a 5 second waiting time for the computer to reset each time you turn the key from on to off). If not , I would suspect the ECM.
If you do hear it and the vehicle still won't fire up we have a different problem.
We'll have to take these one at a time to eliminate each possibility.

 

good morning. Wasn't cat.....just heat shield loose. Started vehicle...ran....turned it off and went under to check out mechanical selector valve (plastic black box near fuel filter) and checked a couple wires under the back bumper to make sure no pinching or bad grounds and tried to start the van and now no start. Currently probing wiring from tanks to pcm. When i turn the van on I hear the ext. pump kicking on. my pcm case is rusty with white (carbon?) build-up which I suspect water leaks on when it rains. The driver floor is usually wet after raining. Im checking the pcm next....just want to check those fuel wires first. With the ignition, I am replacing the cylinder because it is faulty but that's a side issue. But yes, it cuts off after it's been running....never immediately.

 

According to autozone, the pcm is attached to the passenger side behind kick panel but it's not. I have a box attached behind the kick panel of the driver side. I removed that (It says on the UPC code F0UF-2C018-AA A then some other numbers below it (0127769) with letters close by it (CIV). I tried to look that first set of numbers/letters up on the internet but no luck. I googled images of the pcm and the ones I seen have eec-iv on the label; mine doesn't. Anyway, I have what I assume is the pcm and the outer case has rust, carbon damage and it has leaked inside onto the board affecting several of the components inside (i guess resistors and some other stuff I don't know the name to). But I can test the components inside on the board to see if they are working; just need to first check and see if the effected ones have anything to do with the ignition or fuel. If I had a usb cord for my cell phone I would send a picture of what it looks like inside. Ill let you know what I found out. and again, thank you for your time, assistance, and patience in dealing with me.