1984 Dodge Truck good truck, something's wrong

LINCOLN6

MEMBER
1984 DODGE TRUCK
V8
2WD
AUTOMATIC
144,320 MILES

I just bought a1984 Dodge 150 pick-up. My buddy who is a mechanic looked it over for me which I appreciated. I hate to keep asking him to look it over he gets that all the time. Anyway engine is a 318 with 25k miles on it in good shape. All belts and hoses have been changed out brand new. I left for the weekend. It has been cold and this truck isn't winterized for Alaska ( I live in Fairbanks) so when I came back for the weekend I wasn't too surprised when it didn't fire up. I put a trickle charger on the battery and a day later it fired right up. I let it run for a little while. Like 30 minutes to let the juices warm up, and I came back out and it had stopped. It smelled like the radiator was hot, but after it had cooled down there was plenty of antifreeze in it. I put the trickle charger back on it and fired it up in another hour and a half. It ran again, but soon started back-firing, and I shut it off. When I did, the electrical had all died and it wouldn't turn over again. I have the trickle charger on it again. Scratching my head.

1 Reply

HMAC300

MECHANIC
48,601 POSTS

A couple of things can cause this. First check the ohms of th pickup coil it should be 150-900 Ohms. Then while in the distributor, check the reluctor( the pointed thing with 8 points.) It shoud be sharp and pointy with no nicks or like that. Then cheeck the air gap betwee the pickup coil and reluctor with a non magnetic feeler guage. It should be.008-.010" Make sure to move the vacuum advance to not hit the reluctor. Check your coil for resistance as well as it may have an open or a crack. It may also be your ECU. Check and make sure it has a good ground.