Hello all. I have been having a problem with my ranger for the past few days. While at a stop light the truck stalls. If I try to give it gas, it continues to stall. After it shuts off, I can crank it up and go about my merry way.

A few days after, as I was driving it began to run rough and the service engine light came on. I pulled over and turned it off. I cranked it back up and I was on my merry way again. I was trying to start with the simple things first so I changed my fuel filter. it need changing because the fuel that came out of the filter was much darker than gasoline and had sediment in it.I thought that changing the fuel filter fixed the problem but it didn't.

When I took it a mechanic, I showed him the gas that I emptied from the old fuel filter. He said that it looked like water may be in the system and that I should put some gas treatment in the engine. the truck stalled on him once and never stalled again . He said that he couldn't find any trouble codes. He check the fuel system and said that there was adequate pressure and the gas wasn't as dirty in the tank as it was in the filter. he also checked the circuitry and said that the electrical components that he checked seemed to be all right EXCEPT that the crankshaft sensor was giving abnormal readings on his test equipment. He was honest enough to say that he wasn't sure if the crankshaft sensor was the problem and that he would need more than a day to get to the bottom of the problem. I don't have the luxury of time in that case.

He sent me on my way and told me to come back when things got worse.

Well, this morning as I was driving, and it acted up again but more frequenty.
I got home and pulled the codes(EEC-IV) from memory and the scanner came up with:

18 - erratic IDM input to processor.SPOUT circuit grounded
28 - loss of IDM - right side
41 - No HEGO switch detected
88 - Loss of dual plug input control

Question: are these the codes the result of "bad gas" or a defective crankshaft position sensor. Thanks

 

Those codes are probably a sign of the DIS module going south. A erratic IDM code alone might signal a bad crank sensor, since that is the reference signal from the crank sensor to the EEC via the DIS module, but the loss of dual plug control is almost a dead giveaway that the DIS module is faulty. You might want to ask the mechanic if he hooked up his test equipment to monitor the signal before or after the DIS module.

In the meantime, you might want to spray some electronics cleaner on the crank sensor. Like an ABS sensor, they can accumulate crud on them which can affect their performance.

 

Thanks for the advice. Where is the crank sensor located. Is it near the DIS module or does it hook into the DIS module?

 

I had the exact same problem with mine. Behind your alternator is your DIS module, it has a plug going into the top and one into the bottom. Next time it tries to stall out, keep it running somehow and then wiggle the plug on the top of the module. Mine usually came right out of it.
Come to find out, the module had gotten wet inside and went bad. I took the one off of the ol ranger out back and shes good as new. Be careful when you take this off. I broke bolts off except for the top right (as you are looking at it from the front of the truck), which was bad because the bottom left bolt is the one that grounds the module.

If you want more info on this module or advice on changing it just ask me and ill be glad to help

 

crank sensor is behind the harmonic balancer on the crank shaft. the harmonic balancer is attached to a cast iron hub, it has two vanes that run through the sensor. be carefule not to break the magnet on the sensor, it runs between the two vanes.

also, if you change the DIS module, be sure to apply some heat sink grease before putting the new one on.