Recent Starting issue

[d520]

Hey there folks, new to the site but perhaps a 10 year mighty max owner and im stumped. Back story, 10 years ago i purchased a sweet lil mighty max that had sat for about 6 years. It had a mountain of electrical damage caused by animals as it had sat next to a rock squirrel den. Soldered countless wires back together and proceeded to really get to know this thing. Fuel pump and fuel filter, water pump, countless fresh spark plugs, distributor cap and rotor, water pump, spark plug wires and many oil changes and general up keep. I recently got a motorcycle and the mighty max was parked in the shade. I'd start it up occasionally but it probably got considerably less use for the past 6 months. Possibly around 2-3 hours a week. Easter sunday comes around and heck i wanna drive ol max. kicks right over and i head down to the petrol station, fill'er up hop in and cranks, hesitates, doesn't quite catch then shuts down basically immediately. Crank it again, this time it does not hesitate and just cranks. Crank, nothing. crank, nothing. crank, slight hesitation like it has a vapor of gas in it then shuts down. push it into the nearest parking spot and call a tow. Tow it home let is sit for about 4-5 hours and try it again. Kicks right over. This begins the seafoam treatment. seafoam in the tank, seafoam in the intake the lil guy has never idled quieter. drive it on and off for the week and im all smiles. I did it right? this morning. outskirts of the city i live in. possibly colder then city temps but its arizona, its hot 365. hop in the truck and it does that breathy hesitant sounds like its not getting gas and nothing. crank it again no hesitation but will keep cranking. I'm stumped now. tonight im getting new plugs and possibly spark plug wires. side note the vehicle has always had a starting issue. sometimes i go to start it and it just whines. key to ignition, whine. try it again and maybe it whines maybe it starts. its done this for 10 years and has always started eventually. this breathy lack of gas problem though, thats new. im thinking. checking all grounds, then suspecting fuel pump or fuel injectors. whatcha'll think? o yea names dillon and ive got myself a new project this weekend.

[d520]

Some Google's lead me to think it could be the fuel pump relay. I found a diagram on Google images showing it to be one of 3 fuse looking things relativily close to the brake fluid refill cap. I think mine are connected to my positive lead terminal but I only have 2 fuses plugged in. I also suspect fuel pressure. I caused some damage when I dropped the tank 8 years ago to get a new pump in there. Ever since if I pump gas to fast some will get out of the hose connecting to the tank from the exterior. I'm not looking forward to hunting down 26 year old electronics.

[pennyman1]

Sounds like the caps in the ECM have gone south - common problem with the 90 and up trucks. Check the threads on here for what is bad and how to fix it if you can solder.

[d520]

Thanks for info. I let the truck sit for the rest of the day and it started right up. I quickly drove it home and parked it back in the shade. Turning off the insurance and really jumping into this project soon. I'm excited to save a lil money per month and really fix it back up. Thanks for the starting suggestion. I have yet to pull the ecm but i plan to this weekend. I'll keep ya'll posted.