Hi all,

Since I have been working on my new to me 2000 Ranger 2.5, I have been doing a lot of Ranger reading in general.

My other Ranger is a '98 with a 3.0. If any of you guys are like me, most of what my kids tell me goes in one ear and out the other, so I vaguely recall my daughter saying something about her truck "bucking" sometimes under acceleration. And, in my readings I found several write-ups about cam synchronizers failing and having engines lose oil pressure. She isn't around this weekend but I think it may be worth throwing a new cam synchro at it because it's got a little over 100k on it. It sounds like cheap insurance.

My question is that there are 2 designations of connector listed for this part. One says for a connector with "step" and the other is for a connector "without step". I have looked at the online pictures and can't distinguish between the two. Can anyone elaborate on what I should be looking for or is it that obvious once I get my hands on the truck?

 

I'll see if I can get things started. Don't know the answer to your connector question, but from our Tech Info thread, be sure to read through this multi page posting on replacing the sensor & or its drive shaft assy. https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/2...placement.html
The shaft part is the one that can do the most damage as it also drives the oil pump, so if it locks up or the gears strip from lack of lube, the oil pressure goes to naught. It usually provides plenty of warning though, by emitting a loud squeak, or cricket like chirp from atop the engine, passenger side firewall area, up where the distributor used to be. So if its making a squeak, or chirp, or other untoward noise, replace the whole assy.
A miss under load is usually associated with a spark problem, like too wide a spark gap, from worn plugs. Or maybe from a loose wire on the plug or coil pack.
Or cracked plug ceramic insulator, or plug wires with damaged insulation, with arcs & sparks to ground, or a cracked coil pack, which a "wet down test" at idle at night with a spray bottle of water will usually quickly locate.
Or mis-routed plug wires, we need to route them exactly as the factory had them, using all or the stand offs & wire looms to dress & hold them properly in place, so induction induced misfire to an adjacent wire doesn't happen.
Or maybe someone has installed other than the specified iridium enhanced fine wire center electrode, with platinum pad ground side wire plugs, which our engines prefer, as they & the OEM plug wires are designed to take the Double work load out "waste spark" ignition system puts on them. Regular copper core nickel electrode plugs don't last long & the Multi-ground plugs don't perform well as they're not the right heat range, the multi-electrodes shade the flame front & the spark kernel initiation point keeps moving around & our engines don't seem to appreciate all that!!!
Some thoughts for consideration, let us know what you find. EDIT: Be sure to check out the "Tech Info" thread atop this forums index page. Scroll down to find the 3.0L Tech Info thread put together by member Rockledge, it has all kinds of helpful 3.0L info in it.