I have an 89 dodge w350 that is my wood truck and im getting it ready for the winter months,but it is giving me problems runs like a top I love the TBI but when you drive it somtimes it will go 500 miles and never give a problem and then it wont stop doing it. I drove it to town tonight to get milk and it quit me 4 times in 5 miles.. I pulled over and it wouldnt start had no spark at all if I would crank it all it would do is crank over just fine but no fire I pulled the plug wire off and stuck a screwdriver in it and countinued to crank it still to no fire, then dang it started right up run like a champ made it another mile or so and the same thing but it restarted before I got pulled over I thought it was out of gas but I had just put 10 gallons in it at the house, I have no idea what it is but it sure is making me mad. I love the truck but hate this issue any ideas I know nothing about gas Im a Diesel Guy thats all I have other than this truck.. I am to the point of putting a carb on it and junking all of this electronic stuff.. Thanks you can call or text me 573 202 9999 too..

 

check all the wiring and that on it. I couldnt really tell u unless i took a look at it. Is the coil good in it.

 

If your getting intermittent spark, it could be the pickup sensor, coil or ballast resistor, wiring could have corrotion, ignition control box could be getting hot and cutting out, etc.. Couple of easy things to look at; pull the dizzy cap off and look to see if there is corrotion build up on the rotor and inside the cap, check the spark plug wires and do an ohm test on them, pull the plugs and see how they look.

There is a voltage test that you can do to see if the ballast resistor is working properly but I can't remember it off the top of my head. I'm sure that someone on here knows and will pipe up. You may also want to look at the ignition control box and see if that is leaking to circuit board sealant. If so, you will want to replace that as well as it could be getting hot and cutting out or shorting out.

 

There is an Auto Shutdown Relay ASD which powers the fuel pump and + side of ignition coil, this relay is energized from the Single Board Engine Controller, SBEC.The relay coil terminals 86 + 85 should be approx. 75 ohms. Terminals 87a + 30 are normally closed, terminals 87 + 30 are normally open and close when relay coil is energized. The - side of the ignition coil goes to the SBEC with nothing between.
I would check voltage in and out of ASD and at ignition coil + , any voltage drop may be your problem.
If the fuel pump is not working at no start the ASD for sure, although it may have enough continuity to power one but not the other.
Edit: The ASD is third from the firewall (small one), fourth is starter relay.

 

Could be a fuel pump, but dont throw $200 away just yet! Do a fuel pressure test on it while its acting up. I am not an expert with those. But in newer cars, a symptom like that points to a crankshaft, or camshaft position sensor. But I dont even know if you have those. Might have a crank sensor though if your timing is locked-out and the computer does all the timing work. The crankpos is an input sensor, and in many systems, the computer will not fire the plugs or the injectors if it doesn't see that signal. They are essentially a coil inside, and when they fail, they can cool and work again. This will happen more and more often as it slowly dies. Autozone rents "noid lights", I dont even know if they will fit a tbi, but they can tell you if the injector is even receiving a firing pulse. This help?

 

You got some good tips above to start. Mark (index) the distributor and pull it. Check the play between the cam gear and rotor for excessive play. Check the tolerance on the primary and secondary side of coil. If out of spec even if its close replace.

Is there an after market coil? Jacobs or MSD? Did you change coil location? is it in a cool place away from direct heat source?