HI all, new to the forum but not vans! Years ago I had an 83 302 150 custom van that we traveled all over the country in. Loved it, retired a couple of years ago and decided to buy another one for our traveling. Got a 92 with 34k original miles, thing is just mint inside, out and underneath. 1 owner, believe it was an older couple because after about 2010 they only put 3k miles on it in the next 13 years (I have the service records).

Anyway, I have a problem. Been driving around town fine, no problem on highways, streets etc. About two weeks ago I was driving down a road and went up hill and it stalled at the intersection. It started right back up, so I figured I'd better drive home. If I feathered the pedal it drove ok but if I got in it there was some stumbling. I feathered it all the way home, it stalled at my street, started right back up, I drove up my hill to my house and put it in park and shut it off. Since then it wouldn't restart. It turns over fine sounding, but no starting.

I swapped the horn and fuel pump relay, no change. The fuel pump fuse is good. I had it towed to a place but they are totally clueless. They said they can hear the fuel pump kicking on.

Any ideas? It acts like it ran out of gas or had bad gas, but I filled the tank with 89 about a week before, and then when it wouldn't start I put 3 gallons of premium in it in case maybe the gas gauge didn't work and someone siphoned my full tank out (made no difference).

I'm not terribly sure where to start. I feel like it has to be something relatively simple as it was running and driving beautiful before this happened, just smooth as silk. I am thinking maybe bad fuel filter from all the years of sitting? I was considering checking the fuel line pressure with the key on to verify fuel is actually getting to the engine. My Haynes manual says there is a fuel filter on the frame rail. I tried to check for the inertia switch but my van doesn't seem to have one behind the passenger kick panel.

Thanks for any ideas! I'm looking forward to participating here and as soon as I get it back l will post up pictures.

 

This might help , the inertia sw is behind the pass side kick panel right next to the door pillar (hinge area).
If you run your finger over the cardboard panel, you can feel the repression of the switch..
Might be a good idea to replace the fuel filter .

 

Thanks for the suggestion - I have a solid plastic kick panel cover down at the footwell on the passenger side (I assume this is where we are talking about?), and when I took it off I didn't see anything that looks like an inertia switch. In any case, I don't think this is an issue anyway; I just brought it up to provide more background info.

 

As you know an engine needs fuel and spark to run.
Before doing anything else , verify that fuel and spark are available
That can be easily verified by removing a spark plug and see if it is wet or dry when the engine will not start.
If wet, have fuel, if dry , no fuel. If you place the high voltage wire from the coil into the dist, 1/4 inch, near any metal of the engine while cranking, you should see the spark.
Depending on what you find there will determine where you go next..

 

Thanks! I just got the van back today so I'll probably start messing with it this weekend. The garage that had it said it was firing, so I'm going to skip that for now and jump right to what they didn't test I think. No one checked the fuel rail pressure, and to me that seems like a logical place to start, since it acted like it was running out of gas or had bad gas.