I am working on a 1994 Ranger 2.3 liter M/T with the 8 plug and 2 coil ignition system. The problem is a intermittent no start. Only happens when the truck is warm and the outside temp is at 80 or above. Truck starts fine in the morning and never misses a beat driving down the road. Has never died while driving or even hesitated at all. But if you stop and shut it off and come back 5 minutes or even 1 hour later it may or may not start. Engine cranks fine but just won't fire. Seems if you leave the doors open or the windows down while trying to fire the thing it speeds up the restart time. One thing I have noticed is when it will not start you can hear the fuel pump running the whole time. It does not shut off after a couple of seconds like it is susposed to. I am usually by myself when this happens so I have no way of having someone turn it over while I see if it has spark. And of course if I try to make it happen in my shop with someone else there to help me it will not do it. Fuel pressure checked and if is at the proper spec but I noticed that as soon as you shut the key off the pressure begins to fall very fast. So I replaced the pump and the pressure regulator and that cured that problem so I am almost 100% sure it is not a fuel related problem. I also replaced the pump relay. Last year I replaced both coils and the plugs and wires with no improvement. I think I am down to the ignition module. crank sensor and computer but you can see I have thrown enough parts at it now that I would like to just fix it instead of replacing every part on the thing. With leaving the doors open or windows down makes me think maybe computer but alot of times the passenger compartment isn't that hot when the problem shows up so I don't want to just throw a different computer in it. any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks

 

Definetly go to Autozone or the like and have the codes pulled, they'll usually do it for free. This'll be a shot in the dark without the codes. Bring the actual numbers back to us and we can go from there.

RP
Zach

 

A cheap and dirty crank sensor test.


They tend to have thermal failure (will work cold, not hot), so locate it, cool it with an aerosol can (like brake cleaner, carb cleaner) and see if it starts when the rest of the motor is hot. To test it from a cold motor, use a hair dryer on it, and heat it up.

 

There are no codes currently stored. I checked that and found 2 related to EGR and 1 that said lean bank. I corrected both those issues and no codes have returned. I guess the crank sensor would be the next logical choice.

 

My 1994 Ranger will sometimes not start. It cranks and almost starts but then won't. A man came along once and reached under the dash and jiggled a switch. I've had a Ford dealer mechanic look at this and he said that switch (located above the brake pedal) has nothing to do with the truck not starting. It is an intermittent problem: sometimes it won't do it for weeks and then some weeks it will do it multiple times. It has nothing to do with whether or not I've got a low/full tank of gas, or whether I've just taken a long drive and then made a quick stop and then tried to start the car again...it seems totally random.