Ran out of gas now it wont start

[KotnmthKng]

My car was sitting for about 6 months and didnt much gas in it. I started it up fine and was letting it warm up and it ran out of gas. I put 2 gallons in and now it cranks but wont start. Its really cold out but I dont think the gas line could be froze because it was running for like 10 minutes before it died. Any ideas what could be wrong?

[Jeff Chambers]

Can you hear the pump prime when you first turn the key ON? If not, you might have burned up the pump when it went dry.

[mpj76]

I once ran out of gas and had to put about 3 gallons in before it would start.

[HoodStrype]

I know that you probably did this, but just in case... did you prime it? Is it fuel injected or carb?

[KotnmthKng]

not sure what priming it means. I did try starter fluid though. Its fuel injected.

[Ieatcamaros]

Did the starter fluid work? Priming is when the fuel pump fills the line up to the pressure your regulator is set to. When you just turn the ignition on, you will hear it prime for about 2-3 seconds.

[HoodStrype]

Yeah, if you do that key deal back and forth (insert innuendo here) about 4 or five times it should prime the line back up to pressure. Give that a try

[KotnmthKng]

No, starter fluid didnt work. To prime it I turn the key to ON but dont try to start it, then back to off, then do it over again?

[~The Jester~]

Originally Posted by KotnmthKng

No, starter fluid didnt work. To prime it I turn the key to ON but dont try to start it, then back to off, then do it over again?

Is there a dipstick to check starter fluid? If so, I've never checked mine. LMAO

If starting fluid didn't work, ya got no spark bro. But yes, the procedure you described is correct for priming the fuel system.

[KotnmthKng]

It worked just fine until it ran out of gas, how could that mess up the ignition system? Is there something specific I should check first that would cause no spark?

[Ieatcamaros]

The car may not have ran out of gas even though it was pretty low. That could just be pure coincidence. Do you hear the fuel pump come on when you turn on the key? If you don't, have a friend turn on the key while you have your ear up against the fuel filler door. If you don't hear it, then your pump is not coming on.

To check spark by yourself: Take the coil wire off. Take a piece of insulated wire (one long enough to get to the door pillar post) and strip the insulation off of both ends and wrap one end of it around the terminal where the coil wire goes. Lay the other end on the fender where you can see it from the drivers seat. Take a screwdriver or something that has enough weight to stabilize the wire. Lay it on the wire but make sure the wire part is not touching the fender, just the insulation. The wire should be just off the fender. Crank the engine over and see if spark jumps from the end of the wire to the fender. Obviously, if it does then you have spark. If it doesn't, then you probably have a failed ignition module.

Check these two things and post the results.

[KotnmthKng]

Well I got it to run off the starting fluid, but it wouldnt stay on. I heard the pump kick on once but thats it. Is there a fuel pump cut off switch? anything else I can try before I drop the tank and put in a new fuel pump?

[82 GT]

Yeah, there's a way to manually turn the fuel pump on from under the hood but I don't remember what exactly to do. It's where you plug a scanning tool into but you have to "jump" two pin holes to activate the pump. Don't remember which two pins you need to jump.
Hopefully, somone will jump in here and know what I'm trying to tell you.
I bet your fuel pump took a crap. Do you have over 100K on the odometer. That's about how long the stock pumps last......

[Jeff Chambers]

http://crt-performance.com/tech_tips...uit%20Override

[rwhite65]

Ok, if the car ran for a second or two when you used starting fluid, now you know you have spark.

Have you checked a fuel filter? Never did see what year your car was, but with a car sitting for a long period of time, especially when the tank is not full, you can accumulate junk in the tank.

If you did run the tank empty, you probably sucked some junk out of the tank and into ur lines and or filter. I have done this many times with all kinds of vehicles and tractors especially.

Good luck, may want to test the line at the engine and see if you have anything running out of the line at the front of the car.
Ryan

[Ieatcamaros]

For the record, there is a fuel pump cut off switch. It is in the trunk/hatch to the left of the latch. It has a little white button on top of it. It is designed to cut off the pump in the event of a collision. You said you heard the pump come on once. Did you try it again?

[HoodStrype]

The problem I think is that we just don't have enough info. If you could tell us everything you've tried 'til now we can probably get this thing started. Check this out for instance...

In the past 4 months I've replaced...

Distributor
Control Module
Plugs
Starter solonoid
Various wires (mostly on the solonoid)
Added a Fuel Pressure Guage (Thank God I didn't leave it to guessing... I was at 75 for a day or two)

and still I have problems. So I'm almost sure its either- a wire (computer), fuel pump, fuel filter and I wait til spring.

Like said before, if it cranks you have spark. Is the spark intermitant (Check with a screwdriver against a grounded surface or as mentioned before)? Does it always crank with starting fluid for a couple of seconds? Have you primed it? Have you checked the fuel filter? Does the fuel pump stay on or die out? Is the distributor loose? This could be a lot of things from what I've been through.
Give us all the 411 you can and we'll get that bad boy running!

Oh yeah, did you possibly change tail lamps and hit the cut off switch? All kinds of stuff to check from my experience on this one... it is a dinosaur you know!

[KotnmthKng]

OK, I'll start from the begining,

My car, 1988 5.0 GT, was sitting for about 5 months and I started it up to move it. I ran for about 5 minutes before it died out. I assume this is because I ran out of gas. So I put a gallon in and tried to start it, it cranked but didnt start. The next day I put another gallon in and a bottle of heat and it still would rank but not start. Then I tried starting fluid but it didnt work. Next day I tried to prime it, I heard the pump once but not again after that. Couple days later I tried starting fluid again right in the TB, it ran for a few seconds but died.

I also checked the fuel line under the hood and nothing was coming out. I found the fuel pump cut off switch, pushed the button and tried a jumper wire but the pump still isnt coming on.

[82 GT]

Did you manuallly try to start the pump as mentioned above in that link?
Try that, if still nothing, I say it your pump.

[HoodStrype]

Yeah, could be the cut off switch too... I broke down an hour away from home because of that one this summer in my Ranger. It wouldn't crank over at all though.