2000 has trouble starting only in the morning

[skamin20]

Work truck that is a little rough but 30% of the time only in the morning it seems, it cranks but sometimes takes alot of cranking to get it started. I have noticed at times when i let off the key it starts to sputter sometimes, i press the pedal off and on and then usually it takes off after some sputtering around. Sometimes it takes 15 seconds others 2-3 minutes. Sometimes i just quit, then in the afternoon it fires up. Almost acts like its flooded, with the sputtering and smoke. Fuel pump is running. Been doing this for a year. Any ideas?

 

[Yeret]

I had a similar problem a few years ago; it was a bad crankshaft position sensor.

Key-on-engine-off, fuel pump will prime for a couple seconds no matter what (if it doesn't, that's a different problem), and then turn off. Once the engine starts turning, crank sensor sends signal to computer to re-energize fuel pump and keep it running until engine stops turning, at which point, computer opens fuel pump circuit and stops fuel from flowing.

If the crank sensor is faulty such that it doesn't return a signal to the computer, the fuel pump won't re-energize, meaning you can crank the engine to the end of time and it still won't run.