'87 Ranger STX, No spark, ive tried just about everything. HELP!

[RyanL]

Another thing I found is something that looks like a ground strap maybe? It is hooked to the body of the truck towards the back side of the passenger side front wheel well kinda right around the bellhousing of the tranny. Could someone look at their truck and tell me if they have this same thing and where it goes?

The ground that I think that you're talking about bolts to the rear of the passenger side head and goes up to the firewall right above it. Are you saying that it is not connected? Before you rule out a bad ECU, check all of your important connections and your grounds (clean them all up and reconnect them). Make sure that you have power going to your ECU with the ignition switch turned on. Maybe it's as simple as a bad relay or blown fuse.

 

[79F1504X400]

Its a Long shot.....

I had this problem too awhile back. Check your Battery voltage and charge it to make sure its 12v or slightly above. Mine wasn't getting spark and for some reason i thought about checking the voltage and it had dropped to something like 11.4 volts. (I have a digital VOM). I threw my charger on it for an hour and it fired up. Like i said......its a long shot.

 

[Rangerman87]

Check ALL the grounds including the one coming off the neg terminal.Also,there is a wire in back of the battery coming out of the harness that connects to the neg batt cable,it looks like a fuse holder.It might have came loose,hard wire it.That right there will cause it not to start!

 

[alpinestar]

Its fixed! It was just a bad relay I guess... I remembered that when I bought the truck the guy mentioned that it had stopped running once and he replaced the cap and rotor and plug wires and then found out it was a bad reklay so I tried that and it worked. Thank god cuz I was on my last straw with this truck. But I guess I should have known to try that. Thanks for the help guys much appreciated. Hopefully the next time u guys hear from me it will be because I'm straight axling this truck!

 

[jhammel85]

Was it a bad ECU relay?

 

[DC]

i had the same problem with my 88 ranger it had died on me but then started right up an died again when going up a hill i had changed the coil an pulled the cap on the disteribitur to see if it was bad it wasnt i changed the tfi moudule an replaced all fuses in the dash an it started right up for me i suggest looking at the fuses an look to see if any have blown to stop the truck from starting

 

[eks]

Have thought about maybe a bad gear on the bottom of your distributor, I had one get badly worn and had to replace the distributor(this also fixes the tfi problem) to get my truck to start and get fire at the plugs.