2.9 B2 wont stay running

CurtisP87 · Jul 15, 2014

My B2 died on me back in February, and Ive just recently been able to start looking into the problem. It was getting 0 psi to the fuel rail, so I threw a new pump (the one on the frame) and a new filter at it. This didnt help, so I started looking around the pump relay and found a frayed wire that goes into the relay. Patched that wire up, and now the truck will start, but it chokes out within 10-20 seconds. The engine bay smells really rich after starting it a couple times, so I decided new plugs and wires wouldnt hurt. 4 of the 6 plugs I pulled out were some of the most fouled plugs Ive ever seen (and it hasnt been that long since I did them). That didnt help, so I borrowed an EEC out of a friends 87 ranger and plugged it in just for shits n gigs, same story....

Im a little stumped where to go from here. Im starting to suspect bad gas from sitting too long. Does gas go bad after 5-6 months...? If it did go bad, what would it have mucked up to cause the problem Im having...? My gut tells me that since the engine bay smells super rich fuel delivery isnt my problem anymore, and Im chasing a new ghost around, but Im just guessing...

Any help/advice would be very much appreciated. Im leaving now to go re-rent the fuel pressure tester to see what sort of pressure Ive got now that I got the old girl to at least fire up...Ill update when I figure something out.

RonD · Jul 15, 2014

On the fuel rail is the Fuel Pressure Regulator(FPR), it will have Fuel line and return line, also a Vacuum hose attached.
Remove the vacuum hose and check it for gas or gas smell.
If FPR leaks the fuel will be sucked into the intake flooding out the engine.

No, 5 or 6 months will not hurt the gas in the tank.
BUT....when gas sits for awhile all the water in the tank will settle at the bottom, gas is lighter than water.
And fuel pump pulls gas from the bottom of the tank...........
Normally with daily, weekly or even monthly driving the gas and water stay mixed and don't have a chance to settle out.

This doesn't sound like your issue because there would be no "smell of gas" if water was the issue.

CurtisP87 · Jul 15, 2014

thanks for the tip Ron. I checked out the vacuum hose on the FPR and it definitely smells of fuel. Ill try a new FPR and update when Ive learned more.

CurtisP87 · Jul 17, 2014

Aaarrrggggghhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Update....
I put in a new FPR, same story. So I started to wonder if perhaps fuel delivery was alright and I wasn't getting a spark, so I started looking around the ignition coil with the multimeter. I discovered I had a bad ground to the coil, only 6v registered on the meter. The hot wire was spot on, 12v. So I ran a jumper wire from an easily accessible ground location straight to the coil, and used the existing hot wire. I tested again with the meter, this time got 12v across the circuit (with the new ground wire). Here's where things get weird....With this new ground wire for the coil, the truck wont even start. Cranks all day, but wont fire up. If I put the original ground wire back on (only 6v on the circuit) it starts right up, but immediately chokes out and dies...

If anyone could shed some light on this one, I would very much appreciate it.

CurtisP87 · Jul 19, 2014

swynx · Jul 19, 2014

hooked up the original ground wire and the new one at the same time. you can never have to many ground wires.

RonD · Jul 19, 2014

CurtisP87 said:
Update....
I put in a new FPR, same story. So I started to wonder if perhaps fuel delivery was alright and I wasn't getting a spark, so I started looking around the ignition coil with the multimeter. I discovered I had a bad ground to the coil, only 6v registered on the meter. The hot wire was spot on, 12v. So I ran a jumper wire from an easily accessible ground location straight to the coil, and used the existing hot wire. I tested again with the meter, this time got 12v across the circuit (with the new ground wire). Here's where things get weird....With this new ground wire for the coil, the truck wont even start. Cranks all day, but wont fire up. If I put the original ground wire back on (only 6v on the circuit) it starts right up, but immediately chokes out and dies...

If anyone could shed some light on this one, I would very much appreciate it.

Coils don't have a full time ground...................remove that new wire.

A coil gets 12volts on "+" terminal when key is on, there may or may not be a readable ground on the "-" terminal, it depends on the ignition system.

A coil works by turning it OFF, that's what the points did in the old distributors, when the points opened(they were connected to ground and "-" on coil), the ground is cut, the primary field in the coil collapses and this sends out a spark on the secondary coil.
When points closed the coil powered up again, for the next time the points opened and a spark is sent.
Newer ignition systems use "transistors" instead of points to cut Ground to the coil, either using a sensor in a distributor or on Crankshaft for distributorless.

So that wasn't your problem.

CurtisP87 · Jul 22, 2014

alright, thanks for the info ron, that got me away from a dead end and back on the right track.

I found that the orange/light blue wire going from pump relay to the inertia switch had power leaving the relay, but NOT going into the switch. So I ran a jumper from relay to switch, problem solved. Somehow that wire has pooped out and isnt moving the electricity properly (assuming it just deteriorated internally). I removed the old wire, ran the new wire thru the firewall with the rest of the wires, and snugged everything back up.

The B2 is back in action!!!!

Thanks for the advice, and keepin me looking in the right direction.

RonD · Jul 22, 2014

Good work

Gotta love a happy ending

2.9 B2 wont stay running

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