Hi, I recently bought a truck from a friend of mine. It was running fine, til one day it no longer runs.

My fuel pump energizes when ignition is turned on, I unhooked the fuel filter and turned on, fuel came out, so I know the pump is doing good.

I replaced the fuel filter thinking it was dirty and voila, it starts right up, I let it idle for 15 mins and did a test drive around the block. No problems, I pull it back into the driveway and turned on the headlights and the truck dies. Turned off the headlights and try to crank and the battery is dead, I tried jumping it off and it only turns over, I pour a little fuel into the carb and it'll run til the fuel i poured in is used and itll die.

Any suggestions?

Are you able to verify fuel pressure at the fuel rail with a fuel pressure tester?

Ive seen mixed numbers on what the psi is supposed to run on these, anything from 13-60 psi, what is it supposed to be?

I dug up my fuel pressure gauge and found it smashed with the needle broken, I will not be able to verify that way the fuel pressure, any other suggestions?

No not really. We already know that the engine ran after the fuel filter was changed out and after the no start issue began, we know that the engine still runs, but only by dumping fuel into it. We just need to verify that you are getting enough fuel to the TBI to make it run. I'm not familiar with the TBI on those. Can you verify voltage while cranking over?

As stated before verify you have fuel pressure to the throttle body. You might want to check your old fuel filter, possible rust from the fuel tank entering your filter. Btw when you get this thing running, get rid of it or drop a V-8 in it. The 2.8s in these trucks are junk and are gas hogs.

the tbi engines dont have schrader valves. they are pressure sensitive though and need like 5 to start and like 7 to 10 run properly. and you cant tell if the pump is good just by it coming out, it will almost do that with just gravity. however it doesnt sound like your problem is with the pump itself, it seems more likely due to your headlight comment the grounds are bad on the pump and or chassis to battery or the battery terminals themselves. the pump cant make the proper pressure without proper voltage and that takes good power feed and clean ground.

try a new or different battery. my 99 silverado did the same thing. i couldnt figure it out for the life of me. would crank over for ever but wouldnt fire. when it did start it ran okay. but drive for a bit and go to start again and same thing. turns out something inside the battery was broke sending to much voltage to the pcm making it do all kinds of weird things. i would borrow a battery from someone first and see if that solves it. worth a shot.

Yeah, pretty sure the battery is shot on this guy. I did a slow overnight charge on the battery and it'* dead still.

My Dad had a 88 s10 [2.8L as well] but the battery is top post terminals, can I test it in place of my side mounted terminals?

If the cables will reach, yes, you can use it for testing.