well, i need some advice. i am gonna buy a guys 1992 4 cyl ranger 5 speed to beat-around in. 147,000 miles, little rusty, no start. needs fuel pump, maybe. he drove it home one day, and it wouldnt start the next day. since 1999 its had injectors, fuel pump, o2 sensor, mass airflow sensor, plugs, and plug wires, and clutch. it had all the other stuff cause it had a bad computer that was reading all kinds of diff codes, then they fixed the computer, and no more problems. but he brought it home one day 6 months ago, let it set over night and no start. he says he cant hear the fuel pump engage, but he could before so hes sure its the pump. beds pretty rusty, and a lil rust around the bottom rear corners of the cab. he said he'd take $275 for it cash. good deal?

 

That would be a good beater if it's only the fuel pump. Remove the gas cap, put your
ear near the opening have someone flip the key to on, not start..
You should be able to hear it cycle for about 3-5 seconds.

You might be able to get the FP to go one more time
Have someone turn on the key while you smack the bottom of the tank.
I use a hammer and a 2x4 laid flat. Listen for it to cycle.

 

That would be a good little set of wheels to scoot around in I,m not familiar with the ranger but I have had a few trucks around that year and had similar no fuel pump action problems and it always ended up being the fuel pump relay harness corroding

just a thought may help

 

what do u do to fix that wire harness deal?

 

I used to just replace the female part of the harness with a new one if you can still get them they came as a repair kit from ford it had the female part of the harness that you just soldered in and a new relay.

Like I said before though I know nothing about the rangers but if they are similar to the full size trucks it may be worth a look you should hear the relay click when you turn the key .

 

x2...I drove for almost 2 months in my VW GTI with a 2lb dead blow hammer in it before I could a new fuel pump....had to smack the tank before every start....this was 15yrs ago

 

i know about hitting the tank. had to lay in walmart parking lot one night and hit a buddies chevy's tank. it had always worked on about 1 hit. this time it took hit after hit lol. about 15 minutes and we had it going. he keeps i think a ball bat in his truck for it lol

 

even if its totaly dead you cant go wrong for 275. its worth more as scrap than that. pick it up and see what you can find out

 

yup i went and got my title this afternoon. he took $272 lol cause i didnt have fives, and i wasnt about to give $280 LOL. but anyway, i will prolly go pick it up tomorrow and do some work on it tomorrow night

 

i had a simular problem with an ranger where i bought it drove it home went to go to work and it wouldn't start. turned out to be the tfi modual on the dist

 

ok, how did u diagnose the TFI module?

 

weak spark/no spark, if i remember right the fuel pump will only come on for a second as well and then shut off cause it wont think the engin in running, i could be wrong but i seem to remember something along thoughs lines. they can also be intermitin were everything works fine and then they decided to take a **** then everything is fine again. in my case i removed the distributor and found quite a bit of shaft play and opted to replace the entire distributor/tfi modual.

 

ok, thanks

 

Had a similar problem with my old '89 f150, I pulled it into the shop to replace the exahust then no start. It turned out to be the fuel pump relay. Cheap and easy to replace! Try that first.

 

X2 on checking the fuel pump relay harness. The late 80's-early 90's full sized Fords had lots of problems with the connector corroding causing symptoms of a bad fuel pump. I don't know what Rangers used for a relay setup though. I know in 92 the full size went to a power distribution box and have never seemed to have troubles in that area since.