1987 ford 7.5L 464 won't start.. symptoms prior?

I bought a 1987 Ford Chasis motorhome (American by Cobra). It fired right up. The previous owners babied it (put little miles on it [about 1,000/yr for ten years], put a newer edelbrock carb, all hoses appear new. engine sparkling clean, etc.)

First sign...It wouldn't fire up like my 1984 econoline (pump the fuel 1-3 times and hold, turn ignition, and instant start). When first purchased, less than a week ago, it fired fairly easily. The lack of firing was a slow build up of about 10-20 times (as that's about how long we've owned it).

Second sign... about a week or so of ownership (6-10 times of turning the engine on), the engine had a sudden loss of fire and backfired. The instant the symptoms occurred, I pulled over and let the engine warm up a bit (don't know if that was the right thing to do????)

Third sign.... right before taking the rig camping, it took starting fluid to get it going. It makes two distinct firing noises. One with fuel, and one (i'm assuming) without. When it has fuel, it sounds like the engine is turning over. Without fuel, kind of like just the starter is moving around. Once starter fluid was in, it started up and I let the engine warm to operating temperatures without a problem.

Final sign... On the third sign, I was up to go camping. I parked it and hitched a ride to work. It drove fine (minus the starting). It didn't backfire or have any other symptoms. I parked it for about 2 days. When I came back, it fired right up drove about 100 feet and died on a slight incline of a hill. Once dead, it started making the starting sign where no fuel was getting to the engine. I found a nice guy to give us some gasoline, but the second the fuel was burned, the engine would stop (i.e., as long as I poured gas down the carb, it would run. Once the fuel ran out, it'd stop).

Now I can't get the engine to start without fuel being dumped down the carb. Any ideas where to start? Tools/spare parts to take (as it's stuck in the woods)?

Other thoughts, the vehicle was stored indoors and was regularly maintained; however, it was not driven buy once-twice per year. The previous owners did most of the work themselves and the engine has a real deep throaty sound when started (or at least last time). The son said they "tuned down" the carburetor for optimal gas mileage and the deep sound.

.........Please help. Thanks