Well, I'm back up here in Montana, Butte, not to put too fine a point on it.
The problem with the Spins, but no start issue was to rebuild the distributor down to the stator. Reinstalled it with 10 degrees before TDC with the spout connector off. The result was that it didn't run very well had no power upon acceleration under load. That's where I left it until now.
So I'm thinking that it was a fuel delivery problem, either fuel pressure or fuel injectors. So I bought a fuel injector pressure tester and hooked it up. This is where it gets interesting. The pressure was zero at Key On, Engine Off, even though the pump was heard running. At start the pressure went up to about 35. When the vacuum was taken off the fuel regulator the pressure went up as expected. I checked the flow volume and it seems a little low, 20 seconds to fill a half pint jar. The pressure dropped to zero upon Key Off, Engine Off. So that pointed to dirty injectors.
I went down the the autoparts store, here in Butte it's O'Reily's, and bought some Berrytown 12 cleaner, the truck seems to be running better. I'm going to hold off doing anything else until the tank is run down. It's a 32 gallon tank and it's full so it might be a while.
Something else that might have been causing the problem was a bad wire on the number six plug and a loose number 7 wire, and I cleaned the IAB valve. I haven't gotten to the vibration that I think is transmission related although it's been suggested that it's driveline related.
I had this bronco out on the road today, after about 20 miles it stopped running well.
Whenever I pushed down on the accelerator the engine wouldn't accelerate. But as I let up on the accelerator the engine felt like it was getting a shot of gas and would accelerate. So here I am trying to get up to freeway speeds by pushing and releasing the gas pedal.
I check the fuel pressure when I got home and it was way low, I was thinking Throttle Position Sensor (TPS) but now I'm thinking fuel pump. Maybe fuel sock, maybe fuel filter, but not so much because the fuel filter looks to be fairly new, it's not a Ford issue anyway, it's a Fram. And it's fairly clean.
So now I have to take action, I'll pull the fuel pump and see how it is.
You could do a set up similar to I believe Fredrick (sp?) on the 87 to 97 forum for home testing your fuel injectors. I think he used a momentary switch, a fuel pump along with hosing to create a fuel injector test/cleaner.
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Stock 1978 F250 Custom regular cab 4x4 with 351M and 4 spd.
1991 Bronco silver anniversary, 5.8L EFI, E4OD swapped for C-6, custom trimmed rear fenders finished in rust.
2009 Fusion SE 2.3L 5spd Red/black cloth n leather
This morning I tried the fuel pressure and it was ok, around 35 psi. It went over 40 when I took the vacuum line off the fuel regulator, so that's working ok.
The theory now is that debris in the gas tank is clogging the sock over time. As the gas flows in the tank toward the fuel pump the sock gets clogged cutting off flow. After the truck sits for awhile the debris floats away from the sock allowing normal operation.
So the theory still requires the fuel tank to be removed and cleaned. I just don't have to spend 150 for a new fuel pump. I think the local radiator shop can clean the tank for around 60. I'll do all the removal and reinstall.
With these cars, the electric fuel pump either works, or don't -- there's very little 'in between'. Of course, debris in the tank is a whole different ballgame.
I haven't pulled codes, it's a OBD I and I have a OBD II reader and no adapter yet.
I was under the Bronco looking at taking off the fuel tank; it's got a skid plate of course, with 8 rusted bolts and nuts, metric 14mm if I remember correctly.
I took the skid plate for the transfer case off, it's bent and was touching the cat, getting hot and all that.
On the 5th when I finally hobbled home the fuel pressure was around 20 psi.
What do you think of the debris in the fuel tank theory? Or does it seem more likely that it's the TPS? Quits working right after 20 minutes? That's what doesn't make sense to me.
sounds like 1 of your 2 pumps are working properly. also could be a clogged fuel filter. do a search on here for fuel pump access panel. you can cut a whole in the rear floor area and have direct access to the pump in the tank with out having to drop the tank. very handy in this situation.
now you dont need a scanner to pull codes. us a paper clip and read up on pulling codes on fordfuelinjection.com
My fuel filter is accessible from underneath the truck, it's on the driver's side inside frame. I've become aware of pulling codes using a paperclip, did it once, didn't help, it came up 111. I'm not sure that codes for emission control would help me at this point. Would a CEL come on if the TPS was out of range?
I took the tank off, removed the fuel pump and replaced the intank fuel filter, (sock).
A 1/2" impact wrench really saved the day taking the 8 bolts loose, took about 15 minutes. It's a 15mm nut and a 14mm bolt head.
Long story short, the truck seems to run fine, I'll take it on a road trip Friday to see how it goes.
As a side note, I'm thinking that maybe the skid plate for the transfer case might have been transfering heat over to the driver's side frame and the heat caused some vapor lock issue with the fuel line. Irregardless I left the transfer case skid plate off. I don't plan on slamming down on any rocks, roads and gravel roads only.
The truck performed as expected on the trip today, it was about 75 miles. Had the speed up to 65, tried to keep it in D instead of Overdrive. I shifted manually from D to overdrive. The gauges worked as expected. The temperature gauge moved but was not in the expected range, where most of the time the needle would be centered between C and H, only moving slightly more toward H when being driven uphill, and moving toward C when coasting down hill, so that's an issue but not immediate.
The truck still has hesitation when the accelerator is pushed hard and fast, it bogs. There might be some adjustment needed in the transmission.
The 4 wheel drive is working as expected, 4H as well as 4L, light on the dash work.
Sounds tight with no bad sounds. Of course this was in the parking lot at Walmart so I wouldn't expect anything bad to happen there. It's likely to be out on the end of the trail when things break.
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