My 89 Ranger PU stalled out the other day and we found it had no spark and would still turn over good. The EEC fuse was blown and it blew the new one. We have been going through the wireing harness and not finding anything.Does anyone know what this proublem could be????

 

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If you couldn't find an external short it may be in side the ECU, maybe you could find a similar one at a junkyard cheap to confirm this possibility.

 

Well you could try to further isolate the problem area, by disconnecting the ECU at it's electrical connector, installng a new fuse & powering the circuit up.

If the fuse still blows, the probem is likely between the fuse & ECM connector.

If it doesn't blow again, it's likely a ECM internal problem.

Just an additional thought or two, for consideration.

 

As soon as you put the fuse in did it blow? Or did it take it a bit? The reason I ask being fuses tend to blow over time...they don't just pop and they're gone, they usually overload then blow, can take anywhere from seconds to minutes. If you put the fuse in and bam it juts goes, it tends to suggest a bad or totally missing ground.
If you have any experience with car audio amps, if you don't ground them and then drop a fuse in, it goes immediately (I tried this with a bad amp, no worries, not gonna ruin a good one on it! lol). Just my two cents I learned with car audio stuff.

 

Thank God this is how standard fuses do NOT work, or a lot of people would have houses, cars, boats, motor homes, etc that turn to piles of burnt ash on a regular basis . In a basic sense, think of a fuse like a safety switch. When it sees it's rated capacity it's purpose is to pop in order to stop excess current flow on wiring that is not gauged to handle such current flow. If a 20 amp breaker in my house sees more than 20 amps and doesn't blow, and should a fire ensue, that breaker manufacturer might be hearing from a lawyer compliments of my homeowners insurance.

 

It's been fairly beat to death in the audio forum. You can BRIEFLY expose a fuse to more power than it's supposed to handle (I'm not talking 30 amps through a 15 amp fuse), and it will not pop. The bigger ones can do it for longer.

 

There are "time delay" fuses, that are "heat sinked", to absorb brief overloads from things like electric motors, that have large surge curents on start up, that might weaken, or blow, a "non delay" standard fuse right away.

We should never over fuse a circuit & should always have the wire gauge sized properly, for the electrical load it's supposed to carry.

We shouldn't change the TYPE of specified fusing either, as sensitive electronic components on the circuit, may REQUIRE a "fast acting" type fuse, for proper protection.

In that case a, "time delay" type fuse, even though it's the specified "amp" rating for the circuit, isn't a good choice, as it's "delay" feature in blowing, could cause our electronics to FRY in the meantime!!!!

SO, when replacing a fuse or circuit breaker, be sure to choose the right TYPE & Amperage, as specified, for our application.

In the old style "glass tube" fuses, the element would often sag over time & sometimes pull loose, unseen, from one end of it's endcap & loose electrical contact, but still "LOOK ok!!!!

That sag could indicate a circuit operating close to it's fused rating, as the element would be operating close to it's melt point, get soft & gravity & vibration would cause it to sag & sometimes pull loose from one end of it's endcap.

SO, anytime you run accross one of those puppies, replace that fuse & begin checking the circuit to see why it's running warm!!!!

Thats also why it's always a good idea to check continuity ACCROSS a fuse, when troubleshooting a circuit, to make sure it's really good & our eyes aren't decieving us!!!!

Just some more thoughts on the general subject of fuses.

BTW Joe, if you come to suspect your ECU, before replacing it, pull it & have it checked out. Many autoparts stores can do it now, so call around & check to see who in your area can do it.