97 wont start

[greens4x4]

97 2.3 with 176,000 miles start up this morning let warm up for 10 minutes before leaving for work. It was 10 degrees out this morning and about a couple minutes after i leave i notice that there is no heat coming out of the heater and the gauge is still on the cold mark which it is usually coming up and heat is coming out by now. I keep driving a few more miles when i notice a miss fire condition decide to turn around and head back home by the time i get there the truck is running real rough and will not idle as soon as i get to driveway it quits and it will not restart. still turns over and acts like it wants to fire but not starting. Checked spark plugs and they need replaced so I did plugs and wires, still wont start checked that fuel was present at rail and there is fuel there. Any other suggestions? Thanks in advance.

 

[Joe0816]

You may have replaced the plugs, but do you have spark? Pull off a boot and see if theres spark jumping. If there isn't, check coils, and if not that, check the ignition control module. Mine is going bad right now, but a lot of them just out right quit.

 

[RonD]

After cranking pull out one of the spark plugs and make sure there is fuel on it's tip.

With spark plug out connect it to it's wire from coil, and place it on a metal part to ground it, I use a jumper cable to hold and ground a spark plug.
Crank engine and watch for spark and listen for the whoosh of the compression stroke from the empty spark plug hole.

Compression
Spark(at the right time)
Fuel
Those are the 3 things needed for an engine to start and run