My son has a 94 Ranger, 3.0, manual, that starts just fine when it's sitting on level ground but if it's on an incline it wil not start at all, it will just sit there and turn over. Last weekend he backed out of the driveway and it stall, as he was sitting on a slight upwards incline he tried to re start the truck and all it would do was turn over. We pushed it back in the driveway (level ground) and it fired right up.....any thoughts before I start digging into this today??

 

I would suspect a fuel pickup problem as the first thing. If you attach a fuel pressure gauge to the schrader valve on the fuel rail, and cycle the ignition several times, the pressure should rise. If it doesn't when you are on an incline, I'd inspect the pickup and sock. Other than that, I'd be determining if it were the ignition or the fuel that were the cause of the no-start before following any path too far.
tom

 

Thanks Tom, but he has no problems when driving up an incline so if it was a fuel pick up or sock problem wouldn't he experience the some sort of hesitation or engine cutoff as he drove up?

 

"priming" a pump is easier when a pump is already flowing liquid. Priming from 'scratch' is harder, and you have to make many trips down to the lake for buckets to pour down the pump before it starts to work. Historical lesson for me... from the wayback machine.
That said, I have to reconsider. He started the vehicle, drove 10 feet, stalled, and it won't restart. Forget the prime solution {pun intended..}
I would then wonder if there is 1) something that is suspended that swings out of plumb on a tilted surface, breaking a connection or 2)something that has liquid inside [such as a distribulator] that is being shorted out or grounded when the vehicle tilts.
In that case, I'd be again checking for spark and fuel under pressure after the 'tilt' occurs.
tom

 

i think that would cause it to die when he was driving down the road though woudnt it? I would lean more towards the prime problem for the example you gave.When hes driving down the road and goes up an incline he may very well be losing prime/pressure but he soon levels out and regains it.
When this happens i would be ready to check for a spark and also to check for fuel pressure. i cant see anything that would cause a no spark to occur but you never know.Check and see so at least you can move in te right direction.

 

Not knowing what the underside of the hood looks like, I'll throw one out: Is it possible that the coil is not mounted securely? I remember reading somewhere that all the coil bolts had to be installed and torqued down as the ground of each bolt 'spot' was used to compete the circuit. I think the 94 has a multi-coil assembly, wired as 3 pairs of two. If it loses ground, the coil won't work for all cylinders.
Either way, I'd check for spark and fuel pressure when on an incline. Or, just don't drive on inclines...

tom