ot, need chevy mechanic

we're broke down, the truck is a 96 3500 chevy supercab, 454 engine, 4x4 dually . the truck ran fine until commin home today going down a slight hill it quit, it restarted after a minute and ran another 1 /8th mile or so, now it wont start, when it tries to start it acts like its out of time, gas is present in the fuel rail, and it has a lot! shot way out in front of the truck at the rail schrader valve. now the whole distributer was replaced just last year and the truck received a complete tune up at that time, we're miles from a computer code checker and we,ve r and r the cam sensor, and crank sensor, tried again, nothing, everything else is plugged in and appears to be good, [ engine is very clean with no leaks,] i need things to check on this truck so we can get it to at least run to town to a shop. sorry for the post but people from every vocation in the world are on this forum, and i need help

caps and rotors on those are prone to corrosion and moisture intrusion. Can sometimes fix it with a simple clean-out and squirt of WD-40 but often need replacement. Not a magic cure but will give symptoms just like you mention.

Can you check to see if it is moving air through the exhaust system? The truck I have would run good but lose power and then go strong again. It turned out to be a plugged Catalytic convertor. I doubt that is your problem. But if it can not move air, it will not run.
SDE

How many miles on it? Why was the distributor replaced a year ago? Was it because of a stripped drive gear? If so it likely did it again. The distributor cap on those likes to start cross firing through the bakelite because of the way they are built. If it sounded like it was out of time it probably is.

dist was replaced due to worn bushings the rotor started hitting the inside of the cap

On my 96 half ton, there were 2 cables to the positive post on the battery. One to the starter and one to the fuse/relay box on the drivers side fender. Mine corroded and was not making connection to the fuse/relay box. It would act like that. I replaced the cable to the fender box and the bolt in the battery and never had anymore problems with it!

Do the basics first:

Check for spark at the plugs. The coil can burn through to the core, will give a weak spark at the coil wire, but not enough to run.

Check the rotor position. With crank at #1 TDC, rotor should point to 1 or 6. Be sure the distributor shaft is turning.

Give it a shot of fuel through the throttle plate, see if it will try to fire. If it does, need to check the fuel pressure, needs about 55 PSI to run.

If it has one of those flat dist. caps it could have a bad cap or rotor and the coil wire was a frequent problem.

SDE,

My first thought was like yours, plugged cat. I remove the oxygen sensor and then try to run the engine.

D.

(quoted from post at 08:58:01 11/06/17) Do the basics first:

Check for spark at the plugs. The coil can burn through to the core, will give a weak spark at the coil wire, but not enough to run.

Check the rotor position. With crank at #1 TDC, rotor should point to 1 or 6. Be sure the distributor shaft is turning.

Give it a shot of fuel through the throttle plate, see if it will try to fire. If it does, need to check the fuel pressure, needs about 55 PSI to run.

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WHUT HE SAID I would inject it with fuel if it runs ignition is not your problem. If it don't a HEI spark tester is needed to check spark. Weak spark and the coil are coil wiring is suspect. They will eat up a aftermarket dist cap (burn through) use OEM AC delco only life will be good. If it runs you need to check fuel pressure as noted. It will run @55 if that's all it will make will idle good but be a dog on acceleration fuel pressure need's to go up at anything over idle when the throttle is tipped in it may stabilize once vacuum stabilize but should in cress anytime the throttle is tipped in and stay above 55 when under a load even a slight load. If fuel pressure is the issue and you go after the pump if the tank has any rust replace the tank make sure you look under the top side of the tank with a mirror. The terminals were the fuel pressure relay plug in are also suspect they can be damages by someone installing a thicker test lead in the sprocket and spreading them it will cause the relay to over heat, Its rare but have seen it happen.

If you are going to work on it buy the needed test tools don't guess.

From your description it sounds like the fuel pump is on it's last leg.

Others have already covered checking fuel and spark.

A few other not so common things you can check.

Cycle the key on and off and listen to make sure you can hear the fuel pump run a cycle when key is turned on and again when key is turned off.

I have the same truck and engine, mine is a 98. I replaced the ignition switch on mine a couple of times over the years because it would not power up all systems when the key was turned on.

Finally ended up putting a toggle switch on the dash that essentially bypasses part of the ignition switch to send power to the ECM.

This begins as an intermittent problem and can be difficult to diagnose.
Basically with key on hook a jumper wire to a proven good 12 volt source from the fuse box on the drivers side of the dashboard, next touch the other end of the jumper wire to the other fuses in the panel, I don't recall it was ECM 1 or ECM 2 or something similar.
Listen to hear for the fuel pump cycling or other accessories powering up when you do this to identify where you may need to hook the wire to bypass the fault.
I did the bypass to mine 12 years ago and just left it this way.
Makes for a cheap security system, unless someone knows where the toggle switch is to turn on, all the truck will do is crank no start without using switch.

Security system on these trucks can also act up once in a blue moon, when this happens the truck will start for a half a second and die, when this occurs turn the key off and check your watch, after half an hour it will be reset and will fire right up like nothing was ever wrong.
Real fun to figure out as I have seen trucks where this will happen twice in 6 months then not again for a year and a half.

Don't need a mechanic you need a tongue to pull it.

well we spent the day on this nice pos, the fuel pressure is good, the dist. checks good rotor is fine as is the cap, and gear on the bottom, after it sat overnite with the battery disconnected to reset everything, we made double sure everything was clean, brite, and tight, brought the engine up to to tdc and checked the dist position and timing, everything is as it should be, we replaced the crank sensor and cam sensor, that was 200 wasted bucks, the thing has spark and tries to fire thru the air cleaner, every once in awhile it fires 1 cylinder but not often, nothing has changed, im at a loss where to look next

Have you checked compression? The firing back through the intake points toward a timing chain or sprocket. Another possibility is the gear that drives the distributor may have failed.
I suggest starting with a compression test with a good compression tester. If compression is good, look elsewhere.
ANY engine, if it has fuel/air mix, compression, and properly timed spark WILL start and run. These are the basics. Everything else is secondary. Throwing parts at it is usually the most expensive way to fix it.

How far will spark jump

Whats the fuel pressure