Hey guys and gals! I'm hoping for a little help....

My 1990 ranger xlt 2wd has the 8 plug 2.3L 4 cyl. I bought the truck new and had a new engine put in at a Ford dealership about 9 years ago (bad oil pump ruined original), current engine has 60+ thousand on it. I really like this truck. It has taken me through the swamps of south Florida as well as the Blue Ridge.
I had driven the truck as a mostly daily driver, and had not had to do much repair until lately, as components began to wear. This past year I began to fix various things as time and money allowed...put in a new clutch pack in the R1 manual 5 speed this past summer, all new parts including flywheel, clutch cylinder, etc. New tires, new battery terminals, etc.

It happened that after the the first of '09 truck sat more than usual. I drove it at least once a week, and after a cold snap around home (in north NC a "cold snap" is several days below freezing) at the beginning of this month, got in the truck and tried to start it.

Engine turned over fine, but would not start. Starter speed appears entirely normal. Tried to start it again later in the day when warmer, same thing. Tried pumping gas pedal, pedal to the floor, etc. I let the truck set there until the next week when temps outside got in the 50s and 60s (of course, I haven't got a garage, truck is out in the yard). I depressurized the fuel rail with the mityvac and put in a new fuel filter that I had in stock. Tried to start, no change. One thing I did notice was that on the first attempt, engine would act like it wanted to fire for a second. After that, won't even try and fire up. After setting again for at least a day, same thing happens.
I could hear the fuel pump come on when the key is in run position, pumping up the fuel rail for maybe 3 seconds.

So, checked the fuel rail. I don't have a fuel pressure tester for the ford (one on the way), so I uncapped the test valve and pushed down on it...fuel squirted out nicely, with the key in off. My fuel level sender is out, but I know I have at least half a tank…rocking the truck side to side and you can hear plenty of fuel sloshing around.

Just to make sure, turned to the battery terminals. Made sure ground wires were ok in the negative side, checked the positive, and hooked up the battery charger to the battery while doing this. Put things back together and tried to start, again no change.

I hooked up the obd1 tester and pulled codes on a key on engine off test. Other than a code 15 (I assumed that was from having the battery disconnected, right?) only showed a code 11. Erasing and pulling codes again showed only code 11.

I installed new wires, plugs, DIS and coil packs. Truck needed new plugs and wires anyway. I just threw money at it with the DIS and coils. Had already pulled #2 plug wire loose from passenger side and checked for spark…looked good to me.

Checked the inertia switch, it wasn’t kicked out but I jumped it out anyway.
Also tried the starter fluid trick, even after finding gas on the plugs just after a start attempt. Still no change.

Pulled the snorkel loose from the air box and TB while doing plugs and checked for anything unusual; looked good, and throttle cable and TB flapper working ok. Left snorkel off while tried to start. Even put a piece of paper in exhaust pipe to see if had air flow thru engine…paper blew right out.
Checked engine ground to negative bat terminal, looked good. I don’t see any broken ground wires yet. I pulled the pass side kick panel and looked at computer grounds…they are in place and tight.

At this point I am lost. I didn’t pull the timing belt cover, but just bending it back shows the belt is under tension and the back of the belt looks brand new.

I’m open to any suggestion at this point. Computer says it is ok but don’t know how far that goes. I was thinking that if crank sensor was bad, the computer would show that. I can see that RPM side is working at the RPM gauge during cranking.

One thing that I hadn’t noticed before was the behavior of the volts gauge during cranking; gauge falls to 8 volts. Don’t know if this is normal. So I put the volt meter on the battery. With key off shows 12.45V. During cranking shows around 10.5 volts.

Anyone with any ideas? Thanks in advance.
G

 

It seems to me that you have covered all the bases. I would take off timing cover & verify that it didn't jump time just a little but it seems to be electronic. Have the ecm tested,most auto parts stores can do this for you. I say this because I had a similar problem when I had my 94 ranger.

 

Hey rtc722
You're talking about the EEC-IV computer located behind the kick panel?

 

don't know where it is in that year,mine was under the hood behind the right headlight

 

Hi golley, your computer is behind the pass. side kick panel. When you replaced the DIS packs and spark plug wires, are you sure all the wires are connected correctly. With the plugs being wet with fuel, it looks like the fuel side is OK. The problem must be on the ignition/spark side. You say that you have a good spark on the one plug you pulled, but is that plug, as well as the others, getting spark at the right time. I'd check the wire hook up to the plugs as well as the power connections and ground for the DIS packs.

Let us know how it goes.

 

The ecm(electronic control module) from what I understand controls the ignition/starting system. Mine was probably 3in wide by 5in long. Hope this helps

 

ok rtc722, i get you. This year model has a DIS module right under/behind the alternator, next to the driver side plug coil pack. I put in a new DIS. It has two wiring harness connectors, i assume it runs both coil packs.

michigan66, i checked everything twice as far as the wiring. I'll need to check the Haynes manual schematic to find the DIS harness ground(s) and check for a good ground. I did clean all the old heat sink compound off the mounting area and used new compound to mount the new DIS.
I am given to understand that only the pass side plugs were involved in cranking the engine, but i have replaced plugs, wires and coil packs on both sides. After doing this and the engine still would not fire, i checked all connections again.
I don't know how i would tell if the plugs are sparking with correct timing. I used a long plug wire on pass #2 coil output, with a plug in the wire boot, and turned the engine over by key thru the open drivers window and put the plug near the hood hinge (no helper available). It sparked the plug and to the hood hinge metal with the plug end a good 1/2 inch from the hinge. But haven't checked all the pass side wires for spark.

All help is greatly appreciated.

Hey, BTW. When checking the timing belt; the Haynes manual says that you have to remove the timing sensor on '89 and later 2.3L. Someone in another forum mentioned not having to remove the sensor; Can anyone verify that ?

 

Got back under the hood this afternoon and pulled the front cover off the timing belt. Guess what?! The cam pulley mark is off 3 teeth counterclock from the cam timing mark, when the crank mark is at TC cover mark. But i didn't see any missing belt teeth, and the belt still looks good. Tension looked ok and the belt turned everything fine, at least when using a wrench. This worries me a bit. I thought that if the timing was off that the engine would still try to fire/turn over on its own, and just run like crap for however long. This engine does have a crank sensor, no cam or aux sensor this i know of. I took long enough today to determine that TDC on #1 piston actually matched the TC marks on the crank pulley and belt cover.

But something has me scratching my head. Consider this.... I always see it writ that when determining #1 piston TDC, there is a compression and exhaust stroke. But if the timing belt is off or broken, how do you tell? Inlet/exhaust/compression are all a function of the valves. If valves aren't working, no cycling of above.

Can I assume that one complete rev of the crank puts the pistons in the same up/down positions, every time?

 

Hey golley,
If a motor is far enough out of time it will crank but not fire & if your lucky it will start but run like crap. Check the keyways that hold the timing gears on. I had one shear off which allowed the timing gear to spin on the shaft until it wedged. I retimed it many times until I realized what happened.

 

golley,
To get # 1 at TDC take out the spark plug & put a screwdriver in the hole. spin the crank until the screwdriver comes up.continue to spin the crank until the screwdriver starts to drop,its pretty easy to tell because the crank is hard to spin then all the sudden it gets real easy to spin,at the piont where it gets easy to spin,thats real close to TDC. Hope you can make sense of my explanation,its easy to do hard to explain

 

Hey rtc,
which keyway was sheared; was it the crank or the cam pulley? Whoops...does the cam pulley have a keyway?

I've got TDC now...used a long soda straw! I pulled pass side #1 plug and manually turned the crank back and forth until I was sure i had TDC. Then i popped the timing cover back on and made sure TC mark on cover matched the crank pulley notch...someone in another thread mentioned that his factory crank notch was off of actual TDC.

 

The keyway should be straight up on the crank the diamond on the crank gear matches to a notch in the aluminum housing that holds the crank seal it is just off the the right when facing the engine. the cam should match the pointer on the cover I beleive cam keyway is straight down. And top dead center is top dead center just depends on where the cam is as to where it is the top of the compression or top of the exhaust stroke. Now if yours has two coil packs then the auxiallary gear it really doesn't matter where it is at it just drives the oil pump. If it still uses a distributor then it needs to line up with the number one cylinder. A Haynes or Chilton will give you its usual position. Something else you should check on these is the crank position sensor. If it is bad they won't run.

 

hey golley,
The keyway on the crank was the one that sheared.

 

Glad to hear that you found the problem. Just a footnote. I just finished rereading you initial post. I noticed that you mention "pumping" the gas pedal. That would work when we had the carbureted engine but now, with fuel injection, all you did was to flip the throttle plate open several times. That didn't inject any fuel into the engine.

Let us know when you get your engine running again.

 

Thanks for the interest guys.
Nope, no distrib on a '90. I understand about the pumping thing; but had not checked for air flow yet and really just held the pedal to the floor, not like trying to exercise a float bowl and jets. I should have been clearer on intent.

Due to weather and other work, I haven't done much last two days; hope to make up for it on Friday...but did TRY to remove the crank belt pulley...TRIED.

My 1/2 inch breaker bar is a long one, and I put the trans in fourth; blocked the rear tires, and finally pulled out my four foot -repeat- four foot long cheater bar, and still could not break the pulley bolt loose. De-Frustrated with the hammer some...at one point had to push the truck up off the tire blocks and reblock, as it was about to climb over them...

Then, drained and pulled radiator out and set the AC coil to the side.
Now, I have a corded 1/2 inch impact driver, that I've used to take freaking boilers apart with. Damn thing is so long that even with all the coils out of the way, still couldn't get exactly straight on the pulley bolt, due to the support that runs vertical just behind the grille cover.....and STILL couldn't get that bolt to move! Used the 1/2 inch universal at one point too, just for shucks and grins and had to push and peen the pins back in afterward, but that just adds to all the fun! Of course, bolt still no move.

Are these things reverse-threaded or what? Haynes manual doen't say so.

I dare say that there aint' no recalls by Ford, for loose crank pulley bolts.

Was toying with the idea of trying to get the belt off/on without removal of the pulley, but if the sensor or keyway are shot....
I guess I'll see if I have any LP or MAPP gas left around the house, try some heat and go at it again.

I broke down and ordered a used shop manual for the truck; I have these for everything else in the driveway. Might as well have a full set. I'm getting a little tired of the Haynes manual alone.

I'll sure let you guys know what happens in the Second Battle of the Bolt.