360 F250 No Nothing

[defdes]

My motor dies under load and then when I turn the key I get nothing, no lights no gauges, nada. I'll go and jiggle the starter solenoid, and I'll get it to start, but it will then run rough and die under load again. I have had this issue before, and changing the solenoid fixed it but I am wondering now whether that was coincidence. The only reason I am leaning towards the solenoid is just the fact that I had water in my gas tank and was cranking for so long and hard before I got it all flushed out and it would actually start. I plan on doing volt meter tests on it tomorrow, but is there any other thing that jumps out to anyone?

*EDIT: A bit of additional info...I just went down to start it up, had to jiggle the solenoid to get it to fire, was about to back into a better spot at my barn, I turned on the headlights and everything shut off, dead again.

[Clunker]

Sounds like a bad connection to me. Have you cleaned your battery terminals? Are your grounds and high-current connections (alternator cable, etc.) clean or oily. I had a similar problem several years ago, and it was all due to a bad ground. Could also be a short, but then you would be blowing fuses unless the short is on a circuit without a fuse.

[defdes]

I changed out the positive lead, but not the ground and yes it is quite oily.
The change of the pos. lead didnt do anything, I then changed out the starter solenoid and VOILA, car revved right up, didn't stall under load. I took it for a half mile test drive up a dirt road, seemed fine but it stalled out like gas starvation. Got it revving hestitantly after about 10 cranks, then it stalled again and there was no getting it going after that, had a friend tow me home. The motor would do the complete electrical cut out after stalling. There might be a couple different variables going on here.
I never changed the fuel filter after the water in the tank episode which he thought may be the culprit. The bowl in the carb was full and the jets were squirting gas however.

[defdes]

I see in the Haynes manual that the stock fuel pumps screw apart and house a filter, do the aftermarket replacements do the same?

[sargentrs]

The one I bought at my local parts store was identical to the original.