Hi everyone, looking for advice to diagnose my problem. Bought a Ranger with a lot of miles and not a lot of maintenance. It ran rough when you pulled out in 1st gear. It is a 2.3 5 speed with 155K miles. I changed spark plugs and it ran a little better. Changed wires and it ran better but started bucking intermitently at times. If id does this when you pull out, the engine kills. warmed up and idleing it hesitates when you punch the gas. I changed the fuel filter and it seems to have helped, but still has the problem. Had the codes scanned and it only came up with P1443. Don't think that is what is causing the problem. Any thoughts?

 

P1443, small or no purge condition.

Maybe a small vacuum hose leak at the vapor recovery tank, if so it could cause the air/fuel ratio to brefly go lean on acceleration.

If the vapor recovery tank isn't being properly purged, it could load up with condensate & have to be replaced, so it seems it, or its system, needs attention in any case.

Seeing as how this ride has mucho miles with not much maintenance, but seems to be positively responding to the good things you've done so far, why not consider continuing & bringing it up to date on ALL scheduled mintenance past & present.

You know, fluids, filters, new PCV valve, check/repace dryrotted vacuum lines & hoses, clean the MAF & Throttle Body, ect, ect & see how it reacts to a good going over of the basics.

Then you'll have a better base, from which to do your troubleshooting imho.

Just some ideas for consideration.

 

Welcome to FTE!!

 

I would like to run a couple of ideas by everyone. When I got this truck it had a miss at low rpm. I changed plugs and wires, pcv valve, and air filter right away. Things were slowly improving until I changed plug wires, then it started bucking at different speeds, but when it did do it, it was under load at lower rpms and sometimes when pulling out from a stop in first gear. I changed the timing belt this past weekend and found that the old belt was either installed one tooth off for the camshaft and oil pump or it had jumped the timing for both of those gears. Does not seem likely that both gears would have jumped off one tooth, so I am assuming whomever changed it last time failed to get it right. Now the truck runs better but the problems have changed.
Idle speed is low and very rough. The idle has a miss to it when cold and seems to be slightly loping, but it gets real rough when it warms up. Most of the time it does not kill but will come close when it is warm.

While driving it last night it started missing and seemed like it was bucking again, but not near as violent as it was before the timing belt. The CEL started flashing and then came on solid. I went straight to Autozone to have them pull the codes. The only thing that came up was a P0300 (Random misfiring cylinders, multiple or undertermined) When I searched for the code, it seems the most common problem is bad spark plugs or wires. When I bought the plugs and wires, I knew very little about this truck and what it requires. I bought the regular autolite spark plugs and a set of cheap wires from Advance.

Since the bucking problem did not occur until after the cheap wires, I am wondering if the bucking and missing could be coming from the cheap wires? It did still have a miss with the old wires, but not near as bad as it does now. The old wires were original, but unfortunately I threw them away so I can not change back.

Looking for advice. Sorry for the length of this post.

Vic

 

Well, seems you have maybe three choices on the wires.

Exchange the wires for another set & see if they'll work ok.

Exchange them for a better brand, say maybe Autolite.

Get a refund & buy the OEM Motorcraft wires, IMHO probably the best, but likely the most costly option.

Other things to check, make sure you used the specified plugs & the gap was correct & you got them in & torqued up properly, without damaging the insulators or leaving them dirty.

Are the plug wires routed as the factory had them????

Did you butter the spark plug's outside insulator & the plug wires boots inside, on both ends, with a good dielectric grease, to prevent flashover???

Have you looked under hood, at night, to see if you can see any electrical breakdown along the plug wires routing & where the plugs boots fit on the spark plug & coil pack????

 

Pawpaw, thanks for the response.

Any thoughts on the Autolite Professional series? Same price as Motorcraft, but easier to get. I failed to butter the plugs or wire boots. I believe that I set the gap correctly and I put antisieze on the spark plug threads. The wires are routed the same way as original with a few minor exceptions, running to close to computer on bracket by back of engine on passenger side. Put a little more loop over top of valve cover on a couple of them to keep them from getting so close to bottom of intake manifold. They do not seem to be an exact fit, as the are a little longer on a couple of the plugs than the original equipment.

I looked under the hood last night with the engine running, and did not see any arcing anywhere, but if it coming by the boots on the plugs, then I doubt that I would ever see it.

After getting the code reset, the truck fired right up and had great power. Drove the couple of miles home with out an issue except for a low rough idle. Looking for advice on where to turn. I do not want to throw parts at the problem, just diagnose and fix.

Thanks

 

I agree that your cheap plug wires are to blame, but you didn't mention replacing the cap and rotor.

Some background info.
- back when my truck was owned by my brother, I did a tuneup with all factory OEM parts, mailordered from an online Ford dealer. The OEM motorcraft plug wires didn't fit 100%, other stuff looked okay. Truck had an issue with bucking when cold and a LOT of noise on the AM radio.

- Fast fwd to a few months ago. I've owned the truck for about 3 mos. did a complete tuneup with aftermarket parts. Found that the motorcraft dist. cap I put on years ago was defective! The posts on the inside were not long enough and the arcing from the rotor to the terminals was to the bottom of the terminals! (the wear was on the tips, not on the sides.) I installed Autolite plat plugs, Bosch wires, Autozone duracraft cap and their value brand rotor. No more AM radio noise, no more cold bucking, smoother engine.

Even OEM parts can be made wrong and not fit 100%. Strange but true. Use a more expensive set but you don't need to get the MOST expensive set. Put on a new cap and rotor also, and check the O2 sensors - they're likely slow at this point.
Dave

 

Thanks Dave

Distributorless ignition so no cap or rotor to change. Not sure how to diagnose it further other than pull plugs and check wires for any signs of arcing. Anyone have an idea?

 

Well seeing as how this latest round of missing/bucking, didn't begin until AFTER the plug wires were replaced, seems to me they & what else you did then, are high on the suspect list.

I've seen plenty of new things, bad right out of the box, over the years.

Last year, a guy over on the MotorWeek forum, put new wires on his truck, only to find it ran worse.

Upon checking it out, he found one spark plug wire wasn't even fastened/crimped at the boot & the wire pulled out when he removed it from the pug, to check the wires conductivity.

Another replacement set of new wires fixed it up and this time he checked all the wires conductivity, BEFORE he used them. LOL

Resistace should be about 1000 ohms per foot of length, if you want to check yours out.

I've not had to replace spark plug wires yet, so I don't know what to tell you about the Pro Series Autolite wires, but they are probably ok.

I've read pro & con about Autolite on this forum, though I believe most favor the Motorcraft wires, they are of good quality & designed specifically for your engine.

Make sure the wires resistance is ok & they are plugged in good on both ends, the plug insulators are clean & crack/chip free, buttered up with a good quality dielectric grease & the coilpack surface is clean & dry. I even spray mine coil ack surface with some silicone, after cleaning it.

Did you ever run the P1443 code down???? A small vacuum leak in your vapor recovery system could cause a lean condition that might be troublesome at idle, or low rpm load.

Seeing as how you live in cold country, attention to those little detail things you can do, can make a big difference in winter operation. IMHO

 

Thanks pawpaw.

I did find the problem with the P1443. The hose between the valve and the sensor had been laying against the power stearing pump pressure hose and had worn it down until the only thing left was just the skin on inside of the vaccum tube. Looked good from above, but when I looked closer, I seen what it was against. I replaced the tube and wire tied it out of the way from everything. After the timing belt and resetting the computer it did not show it yet. Drove about 90 miles with all types of driving, fom city to interstate at 75 mph and so far is still good.

I am going to measure the resistance of the wires first and also will probably pull a few plugs to check what has been done.

I will post what I find. I do not know if I will get it done tonight or not, truck sits outside and the wind is running 20 to 30 with gusts around 40 at times today.

 

Dang I can't seem to get anything right today, gotta stop relying on my memory & read it directly from the book.

The plug wire resistance should be approx 1000 ohms per INCH, not per foot!!!!
With max resistance of 30K, (30,000) ohms, regardless of length.

 

I spoke to the previous owner tonight. She said that the truck did the bucking routine to her several months before she sold it. It only happened once or twice and then never happened again. She said it started missing after a garage put a driveshaft carrier bearing in the truck. Definitely not related. She also said the truck sat for a couple of weeks before the carrier was taken to the garage. I know the garage and have had good experiences with them myself. I am sure they did nothing to the truck to cause the problems. Not sure where to go from here. I will check the plugs and wires tomorrow and post my findings.

 

Just a quick question for everyone. I will be checking my plug wires tonight, but wanted to clean my MAF at the same time. Anyone know how to get the thing out of the air box. I can see it down in the air box, but when I looked again this morning before leaving for work, I still do not see how this comes apart. Anyone ever take this out of 96 2.3 L4?

 

I did get the MAF out and cleaned it. Not to bad when you get the air can off the truck and see in to it real well. Did find a spark plug wire that will not snap on to the plug. Will be going to get new wires. Still has a little miss at idle. Maybe AIC needs to be cleaned along with throttle body? Does the throttle body need to be removed from the intake before cleaning?

 

No, the throttle body does not need to be removed.