Son ran out of gas and now it won't start????

If you took the top off the carb and it was dry inside, you are not getting fuel.

 

Exactly what I was thinking. There should be fuel in it. My bet is that he needs to drop the tank, get the crud out of it and then flush the lines.

 

When troubleshooting, I never bet nor guess.
As a result I neither end up chasing geese or enriching parts houses.
You may be correct, but proper troubleshooting methods would have resolved this in an hour, yet it has gone on for days.

 

I was thinking form the beginning , feed it a little gas by hand that would find the needed direction to go

 

Appreciating all the feed back,

This morning I pulled the top of the carb off and it was full, tried to start it and no go. The more I played with it, the closer it got to starting.

Started thinking about the fuel line as mentioned, from the tank, pick up, fuel line etc. As I don't think this is the problem, I took a short cut. I removed the screw in filter at the carb, re-attached it to the fuel line and stuck it in a jar. The pump is moving fuel very freely through the filter.

It seems like the longer I try to start it, the longer it will stay running, but still only 20-30 seconds. Try to feather the throttle and it dies. I can restart it as soon as it dies telling me there is still fuel in the bowl. Also, after it dies, and without cranking any further, I remove the top to see that the bowl is still full.

And just a reminder, both the inline filter prior to the pump and the screw in filter at the carb have been changed.

Keep the ideas coming, it's got to be something simple that I am overlooking.

Thanks again,

 

did you try feeding gas buy hand ,or is it squirting fuel when you look in carb sounds like clogged jets but only if no fuel squirting

 

Take a step back and look at everything.
Could be as simple as the vacuum line to the brake booster being disconnected.

 

Maybe the ignition system is NOT completely good? After it dies the next time, quickly pull the wire from the coil (remove from the distributor cap) and see if you still have a good spark at the block. I'm trying to imagine a situation where a weak coil would fail after passing current for 20 seconds or so? The condenser is also in that circuit, and the only way I know of to test it is to replace it with a new one.

 

Use a test light and see if you are still getting power to the coil (+) after the engine dies, if not could be a simple wiring issue(is there such a thing) or possibly an internal issue with the ignition switch. If you Ranchero has an original tach, if the tach/tach wiring is bad and/or connections sub-par it will not complete the circuit at all times for the (-) ignition signal, thus ignition "no worky". Just a thought. Good luck and hope you get it figured out.

 

i'm with ribald on the vacuum check. also, i had same situation with the sock in tank issue. then it became a clogged fuel pump. after fixing those items, she ran tops.

 

Would you believe it?

I popped a $12 condenser in it and it roared to life, adjusted the air/fuel and idle and it purr's smooth and strong.

Thanks again for all the help.

 

Stands to reason, although I wouldn't have thought to check it: as the engine went dry, the AFM went full-on lean, spiking the secondary voltage, taking out the cap.

 

Invest in a Pertronix module.

 

Exactly. I put a few in; my proudest one was a beautiful '63 Meteor 2-door (I may have posted pics on here a while ago) with a 260 V8. Before the Ignitor, the car would run good for a few hundred miles, then start deviating on points (the dizzy was original and the breaker plate was wearing out). As soon as I had the Ignitor and Blaster installed, she woke right up, started immediately cold or hot, and no hesitation on acceleration. I also put one in a '74 Mustang, a '66 Chev pickup, and my '74 Ranchero Squire a few weeks before I was rear-ended.