Stetson_md

I went out to start my truck today and something weird happend I turned it over a couple times then poured some gas in the carb and tried it again. It fired up but immediately died. It did that to or three times then when I went to start it it sounded like somthing arced/shorted out and the igniton and dash went dead.
After that I went in the house and came back out about a hour later I tried to start it again and this time, when I turned the key the dash lit up like normal then when I tried to start it, it made the arcing noise and went dead again( totally dead turned the key and the dash dosent even light up). So I undid the negative side of the battery and then hooked it back up and that got the dash to comeback but when I turned the key it arced and went dead again. I did that 3 times trying to see what was arcing. Then magically it starts firing up and dieing rather than arcing and going dead.


Any ideas?

Edit: its a 84 22r