I have a 88 ranger with 70k on the truck and 30k on the motor. My problem is the idle. When decellerating the engine speed drops to 300-400 RPM or stalls. This is a real pain whenever I push in the clutch to change gears, or come to a stop. I popped the hood and took a look at the idle solenoid while I revved the engine. While the engine is at 2500 RPM the solenoid slowly pulls away from the throttle linkage, and when I drop the engine speed back to idle, it slowly returns - approx 2-3 seconds before the solenoid returns to the idle position and the RPMs jump back up to 800 RPM. My question deals with the idle solenoid - is it supposed to move so slowly? Or is the idle controller acting up, or is it possible I have a bad sensor sending bad info back to the idle controller? The engine light is operational and has not come on. ANy help in this matter would be greatly appreciated.

 

I have a tune-up spec book that details the idle speed/mixture adjustments.After reading the entire section on the 2.0,it is too lengthy to explain here on the board.If you give me a fax #, I can fax the page to you so you will have a hard copy. The tune-up book doesn't give emmision systems testing if the standard idle speed/mixture adjustment doesn't cure the problem,so,you may still have to go further into it,but,unlikely.
Phillip

 

have 84 ranger actualluy my room mate selling it to me
recently broke timing belt at 70mph under throttle
my roommate "tony" knows lots on cars didn't have time, so took to an old family mechanic

previosly on the side of road i tryd to change ignition modual(didnt feel slack on timing belt)
then traced the spark to the distributer (disassembled mabey roter or even dis.shaft .

we pulled the whole distributer out before i noticed the problem.

finally the objective:
got truck back next day 150$ good service
within a day i noticed the idle was rough. first moved dist. for timing didnt work

played with for weeks idle timing etc- never fixed

countinually got worse -idle always fine -doggish and jumpy at low rpms 2000 or less, very rough- exelent top end 75mph runs great- no run in high altitude(arizona 7-8000ft)- no start once hot

drove cold 4am the best it's ever run

my roomy thinks it's fuel mix but screw is capped and factory set cant adjust

i read its the tbi in hanes possably the early vaperation device? sorry forgot it - appears to be heat sending unit

one more is the tbi throttle body injection the same as a carb , hanes refers to them as TBI/carb
and fuel inj as the only difference.my roomy says
tbi and a carb are two different devices.

please help i know what comes next with the stalling crap

 

According to all the books i have, the 84 ranger is carberated for the 2.0 & 2.3 liter.Even though it is carberated, you still have to check the basics like vaccuum lines,carb base gasket,EGR base gasket,intake manifold bolts and all emmision devices.Also,check the operation of the choke thermostat as well as the choke pull off. If that doesn't show any thing,now go back for the timing belt to see if it is a notch off.
Phillip

 

Followed the calibration settings for the carb, and found the problem. The throttle stop was set a little too low. (Thanks Phillip!). As far as rob's problem, I would strongly suggest throwing a vaccum guage on it before anything else. I've chased myself in circles trying to diagnose problems that were vaccum related, so now that's the first thing I check. I had a feeling that my problem was the carb, because I had rebuilt mine not that long ago - my real problem was a vaccum leak, I added the carb problem all on my own. I'm not sure if they put the pcv valve in the same place on all 2.0, 2.3L, I had a capri with a 2.3 and my ranger with the 2.0, they are both in the same place, and a continual source of problems for me. It seems that anytime I touch something, I crack the little plastic elbow on the pcv valve, or knock it out of the hose it sits in. It might be a place to start looking. I would think that if the truck jumped time, it would go from being fine, to an instant problem, where your situation sounds like it has gotten progressively worse over time. (but again I'm an amateur at this). Good luck.

Greg