Starting Issues

[fordman]

why do you think its the switch? does the truck turn over everytime you turn the switch or just once in a while. if it does work when turning the switch then the switch is bad. if it just cranks and does start its probably fuel delivery problems. or the gas has drained back intothe tank since it sits so long without being ran. you can kind of bypass the switch by jump the front large lug and the front small lug onthe starter relay. but the switch has to be on to make it start.

[Thunderfoot]

You’re saying that it cranks over fine but wont fire/run every time correct?
If so there are a couple of things you can do to check if the switch is getting power to the coil or if it is another problem.
Take and put a test light on the (+) terminal on the coil and when you crank the motor over the light should pulse. If it is pulsing then you are getting power to the coil and the problem is something else… If the light comes on and doesn’t pulse then there is some kind of problem with the condenser or points in the distributor… No pulse or light then you are not getting power to the coil from the switch and the switch is probably your problem.
One other thing to try if you are not getting power to the coil is to unplug the small brown wire off the starter solenoid and see if that helps. If it does then your starter solenoid could be the problem as this is the circuit that supplies full 12V to the coil during starting to help with cold starts and it could be shorting to ground.

To bypass the switch you can run a jumper wire from the batter (+) to the coil (+), just don’t leave this hooked up with out the motor running and don’t run the motor very long with this set up as it will burn out the points. If you want to not worry about burning up the points you can use a ballast resistor or a resistor wire on it. Both can be purchased at the parts store…

The ignition switch or starter solenoid are the 2 most common things I have seen cause problems like this.

[FORDification]

This should help with the visual.

[Thunderfoot]

I take it that after you got the battery charged up and cranked the motor over that the light just stayed on, didn’t go out?
If so then you’re on the right track with the distributor being the problem…
If the light went out again when you started to crank the motor over then problem could be the ignition switch or the starter solenoid…

But for hooking up the points, the wire from the points goes to the (-) side of the coil and the wire from the ignition switch goes to the (+) side of the coil. Set the gap around .021 when the points open on the high spots on the distributor cam, and be sure they close on the flats of the cam.

Hope this helps…