My 95 f-150 (154,xxx miles) is cutting out while im driving it. Its kind of like when you switch tanks you sometimes get that quick pause and your truck jerks. It doesnt do it constantly but it does do it within ever 15 seconds, sometimes it will do it a few times right after one another. My guess was that maybe it was the distributor/cap/rotor/plugs/wires. But thats all new now. And the problem is still here. Any guess's what this might be? Injectors maybe? Thanks for your help in advance.

 

it could be the valve that switches the tanks goin bad

 

Is it a "hard jerk", or a "sputter" when it happens? You obviously believe it to be an electrical-based problem rather than fuel-based one. Does the problem happen when the engine is cold, or after it warms up (several minutes of driving) or both?

If a "hard jerk" that starts only after the engine warms up, I'd take off the ignition module and take it into your local autoparts place (like Autozone) and have it tested. It it's OK, my next suspect would be the ignition coil itself cutting in & out when it gets hot. Unfortunately, no shop these days can test a coil for high voltage output when it's at operating temperature (they just do a resistance test at room temperature, which is meaningless if the coil opens when it's hot), so I'd just replace it (about $15.00, max).

If it happens at both hot & cold engine termeratures and it's a "sputter", try replacing the fuel pump relay. Cheap (about $10.00), but can give you the symptoms you describe and be very hard to diagnose. If you have to "grind" the starter for a long time (more than 3 or 5 seconds) before the engine fires up, that's another relay-related symptom.

If you've never changed any of these parts after 154,xxx miles, you're due.

Please post back as to what you find.

 

Yeah, what he said.

 

It seems to do it after about 2 min. The jerk is like when you get shut down by the governor, but much faster, down and back quick.

Now I just noticed that my front gas tank is showing empty, and its full. Seems like when i hit the breaks it goes to a quarter tank.

 

well i replaced the ignition coil, and it still jerks. I noticed that it does it when it is cold also. The distributor is new, i forget if i replaced the module or not, it may have been on the new distributor when i installed it. Ill have to look at it.

 

I've had bad luck with re-man distributors in the past. The pickup can go bad, but test fine when cold, and so they reuse it when remanning the unit. Then it cuts on you when the engine gets hot. I would try finding a good one in a running engine at the junkyard, and if you do, install it and see how it runs. If the problem goes away, then you have found the trouble. I had a reman unit send me into a tizzy over that once. Let me tell you, I was at my wit's end, but it turned out to be just that, a bad reman, and a junkyard dizzy fixed the problem. Needless to say, I got an exchange unit, because they don't give refunds for them. What a load of ... uh... dirt. The exchange unit is on my shelf, and the junkyard one is in my truck. Runs fine.

Just a thought. Also, check the module if you are not sure it was replaced.

 

Ok, Its the fuel injectors. I took it to a shop, and i had them cleaned out. Its better but I will have to replace some/one. Any Ideas on how to figure out which one is bad? Can I take an ohm meter to each one? And would it be a good idea to replace them all? Plus how do you figure out why one of my tanks is showing empty, when its full?

 

an easy way to test is with a handheald tachometer and cut out the injectors one at a time and see which ones drop RPM and wich one(s) don't. If you have access to a scanner, that'd be a huge plus, because then you could do a power balance test, where the computer pretty much does the same thing, but is more accurate. Ohming them out first is a good idea, but the solenoid coils can be ok and still the injector can misfire, so if the ohm test doesn't get it, then perhaps the power balance test will.

 

I do have an ohm meter. Do you know about what the ohm reading should be?