Hello,
New to the forum, lots of info here, good forum. I live in the beautiful rocky mountains in Leadville, Colorado, and I have a 1995 E150 5L, AT OD, conversion van that I stripped out to haul bikes. It's got 160K miles on it, and I've been doing my due diligence as far as maintenance goes. I don't drive it every day, usually on the weekends if anything, so most of the time it sits. I did a search of the forum, and didn't come up with anything, so if this is a repeat, please forgive. The van will sometimes quit when I'm driving, and suddenly start back, faster than you could snap your fingers, and sometimes it'll fail to start completely. This happens intermittently too. When it's not starting, it won't 'chug' or 'sputter' or anything, it won't do anything except crank smartly. I can crank and crank, and no raw gas smell at the tailpipe, either, and then suddenly it'll start and run perfect, or other times it won't start for a few days. I have had it towed twice to 2 different shops, one a ford dealer (!), both times they've found a reason to bill me, like I need a new battery or fuel filter or serpentine belt. In any case, no error codes, even though I have seen (briefly) my engine light come on, both shops said there were no codes to retrieve, and they know no reason for the thing to be doing this. Since then, I've retreived codes (311, 332, 538, 536, and 632), which seem to suggest EGR valve. Do you folks think it's possible that a bad EGR valve could stop my injectors from injecting? Oh, I've checked fuel pressure at the shrader valve on the fuel rail when it's not running (not starting), it's something like 50 lbs, but I can't remember exactly. I don't think this is a spark issue, or I would smell raw gas at the tailpipe after cranking it for 10 mins right? Positive fuel pressure at the rail, no fuel smell tells me the injectors aren't turning on. What do you folks think, this is kinda driving me nutty, and has already caused me to walk a total of 14 miles so far this year!

 

Most likely a bad PIP sensor inside the distributor.
If not that then ICM, PCM power relay or wiring.
If you do not have a PIP train then the injectors will not fire.
Could also be a bad Ignition Switch or plug down by the floorboard.

Some call the PIP sensor:
1. a pickup unit or coil
2. vane switch
3. distributor armature

and the ICM - Ignition Control Module.

 

It definately is not an EGR problem.

 

I thought the PIP had to do with the ignition system. I had an 86 some years ago that showed stuff like 'loss of tach' and replacing the pip fixed er right up. In any case, I'll go ahead and replace it, and see what happens. I have the radiator off anyway, it's really easy to do right now. What plug down by the floorboard do ya mean? BY the ECU? I'll chack into an ICM also.

 

Yes it does, it tells the PCM when to fire the injectors and without it the PCM will not fire the injectors. The Ignition Switch Plug that plugs into the Ignition Switch. Sometimes it can melt the plastic plug and then it will not make good contact.

 

Thanks Subford, and Netscaner for your help,

My local Napa prolly has the pip, or at least can order it, I'll get that going tomorrow, and I'll check the plug to the switch too. I bet even unplugging it and plugging it back it would help. This problem was so irritatingly intermittent, it may never show up again, so it may be awhile till I report back, but I'm going on a roadtrip (going to CA to check out MotoGP) soon, so I wanted to improve my chances of not hiking there. Good info, thanks!

 

Unless you have a press most will just replace the distributor when the sensor in the distributor is bad.

Also do not forget to check that power relay, its socket and the wiring under it.

What you described is like you turned off the ignition switch so I am trying to cover things that would do this. Some times plugs will do this, wiring, bad relay (PCM Power), PIP train lost and the TFI Module.

One other thing I have seen do this is the ground wire (G101) at the left side (driver's side) of engine compartment, near battery. Make sure this wire has a good ground.

 

Wow! Thanks for the info and all the help. I'm going to save that pic

 

Here is a link to the location of the PCM Power Relay.
http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g9...VanECFuses.gif

 

My '92 E-150 5.0 suffered an intermittent gremlin that drove me nutz for nearly a year & defied all efforts to fix it-including EVERY tip offered here so far. It also defied fault codes for a long time. My symptoms were somewhat different & almost universally interpreted as on the ignition side. Mine would run fine one day then start missing very badly & stall out at a light on the way home from the next days errands. Some days it would start just fine & only begin missing after it warmed up, other days it missed from cold, others it didn't miss until I'd gone 60 miles. It did however always start right back up again.


Utlimately I traced it by acquiring a fault code reader to hook up when it started acting badly, revealing TPS throttle position sensor error. Shops routinely came up with everything being OK & of course it would not act up in front of them. I had not suspected the TPS since it was fairly recently replaced & had caused different symptoms. I'd also believed it was like momentarily turning off the ignition & replaced the ignition switch futilely. The failure was in the way the wires terminated & contacted the carbon rheostat that make up the TPS. The poor design relied on a tiny copper spring clamp to make the contact. This had minute signs of arcing, alternately breaking contact, making contact & arcing sending wild signals to the computer.

I'm not sure what year they moved the TPS to the top of the throttle body, making it simple to replace. But early models have it at the bottom where its a PITA & may collect contaminants more easily.

 

It sounds like the TPS is something that can be measured. Man - maybe I oughtta finally get a manual for this pig. I'll check that out too, thanks for the tip!

 

As far as I know they never did move the TPS to the top on a 5.0 or 5.8.

The TSP will not turn off the injectors.
Sounds like you bough a TPS from Autozone instead of the Ford Dealership.

 

I wanted to update...
I have replaced the fuel filter, distributor assy (the cost was only about 80 bucks more than the pip itself), belts, hoses, radiator, tstat (rad and tstat are prolly unrelated to my problem, I'm going on a trip soon), air filter, rotor, plugs, cap, wires, and of course oil and filter. I just got it back from another (non stealership) shop who said there was nothing wrong, and charged me 20 bucks. I asked em how they can make a living charging people 20 bucks for anything. In any case, on my way home, it did it's little thing, where it just stops and starts really quick. So I guess the next thing is the ignition module, thats about the only part I haven't changed. I'll let yall know what happens next...