I have a 1988 Ford Bronco II. Just bought. has sat for a while. When it starts it smokes fairly heavey from the engine. other times just the lights on the inside come on and it wont crank. HELP!!

Check for vacuum leaks & if you find none,
have the entire vehicle smoke tested for leaks

You have unmetered air coming from somewhere

HAVE YOUR ENGINE OVERHAUL, THIS PROBLEM CAUSE COMPRESSOR RING WORN OUT.

Hello, why type of fuel do you use? You could have water in your fuel??. If you are living where the weather is very hot and your having to buy fuel with alcohol 10% or more don't buy this type of fuel. Your 1988 Ford Bronco II is carburetored, and the alcohol will start boiling causing vapor locking this Ford Bronco II. One reason is that early model used an open fuel system and none injectors. With the alcohol additive will low the boiling point of the fuel causing it to boil away; therefore, carburetor can't operate on fuel vapors it has to be liquid. GB...stewbison

check or replace ignition module and coil if injected crank angle sensor

try fuel cleaner and see if that help

fuel pump relay is stuck in the "on" position. Replace the relay. It will be located under the hood in the engine bay amongst the fuses. You could probably feel for the "hot" one or just start pullin them out one by one and reinstalling them and see which one kills the pump motor.

have te ignition module and stator been replaced? that is the common cause of this, and yes the engine being out of time can cause this stall out, when you time the engine remember you must remove the timing shorting bar at the distributor connector to the TFI ignition module or the timing will be severely retarded

Have you checked for spark?

souds like you have no power to the coil when key is on

when you crank the motor you get a boost of 12v from the starter circut thats why it only runs when you hold the ket on start and stops when you ley it go

turn your ignition on and check with a test light if you have power if not check all fuses

you can jump a wire from the + side of the battery to the + side of the coil to keep it running to get you to a garage if you cant find the problem
good luck

You should try checking the fuel pressure to see if it too low. If the pump sat for a long time like that and then was turned on for awhile it may have bought the farm. It may still be pumping, but just not enough. Try givng it a compression check as well just to see if it has any problems there.