1979 Ford F-150 Truck stalls and will restart after cool dow

Hi farm_guy. Welcome to the forum. This symptom is typical of the pickup coil in the distributor. Often they will become heat sensitive and a wire will break open when it heats up and expands. They will usually run a long time at highway speeds because the engine heat is blowing away, but at slower speeds the heat makes its way into the distributor. It will be even worse under "hot soak". That's where engine heat migrates up to the distributor when the engine is shut off and still hot. That will cause a no-start condition after it was running fine, and you stopped the engine for a few minutes, such as when stopping for gas.

Caradiodoc

The pickup coil has two wires that end in a plug. Disconnect that plug and use an ohm meter to measure continuity. I can't remember exactly, but a typical value is around 700 ohms. If you find it reads open circuit, remeasure it when it has had time to cool down. Flexing the wires might cause a change in the reading too.

The pickup coil sits inside the distributor next to the reluctor which is a rotating wheel with eight fingers.

Caradiodoc