My Bad

First of all, being female means you're more willing to seek help, more willing to listen to sound advice, and more likely to do the job right. Out of nine years of teaching automotive, two of my best students were girls, and I had a bunch of good "kids".

I assume the engine cranks okay so that's a start. Do you know how to check for spark? If so, do that first.

Yup. Pull one spark plug wire off at the spark plug, and find a screwdriver to stick in that will make contact with the metal terminal inside. Lay that screwdriver near any metal part of the engine but not completely touching it. There needs to be about a 1/4" gap for the spark to jump so you can see it. You can either position it so you can see it from inside the truck, then turn the ignition switch yourself, or you can have a helper turn the switch while you watch from under the hood.

Crank the engine and watch for a spark jumping from the screwdriver to the engine, then holler back with the results.

You can ignore some of the things on that list, at least for now. We need to figure out first if it has spark. If you do, that leaves out a real lot of stuff as the culprit, but if you don't have spark, some of the common causes will also cause the fuel pump to not turn on. That's a different problem for later. For now we'll assume that whatever was done by way of an aftermarket pump must have worked so we'll worry about cleaning that up later.

What state are you in?

Rats. There's a real nice chain of salvage yards between Indianapolis and southern Georgia / Alabama where you pay your buck, throw your tool box in one of their wheel barrows, and you can spend all day there. Parts are REAL inexpensive and the yards are very clean. I go to the one in Indianapolis and a few in Kentucky and Tennessee on parts runs once in a while. We have a couple like that opening up here in Wis. Now but our cars are always real rusty from road salt. You might check into that in your area. If you have to take something apart, you can sit there and experiment on their cars and trucks first before you attempt it on your own.

The first thing to do is get the distributor handled. A common failure item in them has been the "Hall Effect" pickup assembly. That is a round disc with three wires that sits right under the rotor and distributor cap. When it fails, or is missing, there will be no pulses from it going to the Engine Computer. More on that in a minute.

The ignition coil, injectors, (or the single or double injector inside the throttle body), the oxygen sensor heater, alternator field, and fuel pump or pump relay all get their power from the automatic shutdown (ASD) relay. The computer turns that relay on two times. The first is for one second when you turn on the ignition switch. Usually you can hear the fuel pump hum for that one second. The next time is whenever there is engine rotation, (cranking or running). The computer knows the engine is rotating by the presence of those pulses from the Hall Effect switch.

Once we get the distributor handled, I'm not sure what they did to the fuel pump but it sounds like it was a replacement for a dead in-tank pump. It might be easier to get a used tank from a salvage yard with the pump already in it. Otherwise, if we can't make your add-on pump work right, you're going to learn how to change a pump!

If you're really interested in learning more than just enough to get your wheels running, I have new, used, and old text books that need a good home, and I produced a lot of "Notes Pages" for my students so they didn't have to write feverishly in class. I had so much good stuff to say, there's no way they could keep up! Those probably wouldn't make a lot of sense right now, but if we get to that point, I think I can e-mail them to you as attachments. Everything is in MS Word. My specialty areas were Electrical, Suspension and Alignment, and Brakes. I also taught Engine Repair, but those first three where what I specialized in when I worked for a very nice Chrysler dealership.

Before I forget, clarify something about your distributor. Is it completely out of the engine or is it still bolted in but that pickup assembly is missing? If that's all that's missing, it shouldn't take much to handle the reassembly. Here's a photo from rockauto. Com of what the pickup looks like.

Here's a distributor, I'm sure it's re-manufactured...even so, most of the time you get a lifetime warranty on a distributor from these guys. I've never had a problem with one, 'cept for several "Prestolite" Pre-1978 Jeep Distributors. They were a poor design and the teeny-weeny solid copper wires, leading into it, tend to break after vibrating awhile (even though they were tied up well).....even so, they honored the warranty.

I did get smart and switched over to a "Motorcraft" system, which was used in '79 models on up. The cool thing about it, was both distributors were the same price.....They came thru again, swapped out even, same warranty

Some think their parts are inferior, and the warranty is a scam...Not me!...Nearly all "Tear-up-able" items on my Jeep are covered now, Never a problem!

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/parts/Cardone-Reman-Distributor/1990-Dodge-Dakota-2WD/_/N-ignutZ93xku?counter=0&filterByKeyWord=distributor&fromString=search&itemIdentifier=768473_0_0_18012

Never messed with one like this, appears that it can only be installed right.....or 180 Degrees out.

If it "was working", and someone didn't snatch yours out, or snatch it out and re-install it wrong.........caradiodoc oughtta be able to talk you thru installation pretty EZ!

Thought I might throw you a inexpensive possibility, I think this one is complete....Just add a distributor cap!

I also wanted to get on board (be notified, when something is happening at this post) and watch Doc in action! He knows his stuff, and if you will "comply", he will get you on the road!.......He has assisted me many times!........fully knowing, that I have a screw loose some where!

The Medic

For your truck problem, lets keep the conversation going here because people do searches and would like to find out what the fixes were. For text books, or any other stuff, you can contact me at caradiodoc@frontier. Com. Exchanging training information isn't what this forum is about, other than for someone's immediate problem of course, so we don't want to use up their resources for that kind of stuff.

We have an Auto Body class at one of my community college's satellite campuses. They have a real good teacher now. That is one thing I tried many years ago but just don't have the talent for. Two of my best friends own or used to own body shops and I have total admiration for their skill, but if I had any talent at all I'd be able to sing on key, play the simplest musical instrument or anything like that. Instead, I fix car radios for dealers, and build with wood and nails. Retired early so I have time to play yet.