89 Ranger 4.0 Swap and Hunting Rig, the Houndrunner

[Rowdy Fitzgerald]

Thanks guys!

 

[Rowdy Fitzgerald]

Well I got the new alternator pigtails installed today. It’s charging and the gauge works now. I haven’t messed with the clutch any more.
The engine stutters when the throttle is pressed and I checked the TPS to make sure it wasn’t bad. Next thing will be to replace the fuel filter and then possibly the fuel pump.

 

[bobbywalter]

stutter is often an airleak....intake tube=maf==intake.. or maf dirty or just old if the plugs are good.


but under load they usually ping or spark knock if the intake is leaking...its weird...it can compensate the idle to normal and yet have enough of a vacuum leak to lean out. its a 4.0 thing. if the lifters are still quiet its probably going to be a good engine.

 

[Rowdy Fitzgerald]

Thanks Bobby, that was a thought I had too. The guy I bought it from put all new gaskets in. It was the first time he’s resealed an engine so it’s a possibility. I sprayed the intake with brake fluid while it was idling yesterday and it didn’t affect it. I’ll check the maf, I didn’t think of that effecting it. I appreciate the help!

 

[Shran]

Those intake tubes crack on the bottom side between the bellows and sometimes they wear through on the fan shroud. Pretty common

 

[Rowdy Fitzgerald]

Shran: Is that the aluminum or plastic intake that’s prone to crack?

 

[Shran]

The plastic part, the long tube between the air filter box and throttle body.

 

[Rowdy Fitzgerald]

Oh ok, I’ll look that over. Thank you!

 

[Rowdy Fitzgerald]

I’ve got a question about the clutch triple function switch if anyone can help. I wired up the neutral safety switch for the trans and plugged in the clutch neutral switch. so the truck only starts with the trans in neutral and with the clutch depressed. I can tell this will get very annoying. I plan to just disconnect the trans neutral safety switch since the clutch NSS works. Does the switch operate as normally open or normally closed? Never mind, I guess it will be just as easy to go out and DC the trans NSS to find out lol.
Anyways, I pulled the codes for the CEL and I’m getting 6 codes. PS pressure switch, Trans shift solenoid, Rear Antilock, Temp Sens, neutral switch (before I hooked up the clutch switch) and I can’t remember the other at the moment. I’m gonna try to devote a couple hours today to getting the sputter figured out.
Oh, so it loses prime after setting for a while and then takes a long time to re-prime. I’m thinking it’s the pickup pump. Is there a check valve in either the pickup or high pressure pump?

 

[bobbywalter]

Pumps have checks...they get boogered pretty easy and usually only a long start issue.....but the fpr is the other side of that... And fuel pressure can be a stutter. Make sure it isn't leaking a bit at the injector o-rings .. though you should have sensed it by now....load testing with a fuel pressure gauge is always a good data point.

 

[Rowdy Fitzgerald]

Ok so I think it was a loose vacuum line. I’m not sure which one, I swapped out a couple of the rubber 90 deg fittings and the intake tube gaskets were kinda fucky and might have been leaking. But I do believe one of the leaking vacuum lines was for the fpr. I back drained the filter and it came out clean other than a small amount of water.

Straightened out the clutch MS and tapped it for the second time. Put it back in and the clutch works but is still a little spongy.

Drove it around the house for the first time. lost all 8 screws for the tail lights in my gravel driveway... She’s peppy though!

 

[Rowdy Fitzgerald]

I need to finish putting the interior back together and then I’ll start swapping the explorer axles in. The D28 has a busted driver side stub shaft. Instead of messing around with it, I’m gonna just swap the axle. While I’m at it, I’m gonna reinforce the lift brackets. The passenger side beam bracket is already bent some. I’m getting excited, I might get to use it for hunting this year!

 

[Rowdy Fitzgerald]

I ordered a new fuel pump for it. I’m thinking that since the check valve is messed up, it’s probably not operating correctly either, which would make sense for the stutter. I’ll be replacing the FPR also. I just forgot to order that too. Wednesday I plan to register it. Then next week I plan to swap the axles out, replace the high pressure power steering hose and possibly the pump, then bleed the clutch. And she should be road worthy after that!

 

[DPDISXR4Ti]

Straightened out the clutch MS and tapped it for the second time. Put it back in and the clutch works but is still a little spongy.

Do you have a Mity-Vac? I found that the best way for getting the final bits of trapped air out was to make a fitting from a reservoir cap so that you can put the system under vacuum. Then lots of stabs at the clutch pedal. I think I documented it in here - search under my ID.

More back on-topic, have you considered running a PCM from a manual Ranger? I'm assuming the pins are mostly all the same, but without the ones related to the automatic trans, and so you wouldn't get error codes related to that.

 

[Rowdy Fitzgerald]

Do you have a Mity-Vac? I found that the best way for getting the final bits of trapped air out was to make a fitting from a reservoir cap so that you can put the system under vacuum. Then lots of stabs at the clutch pedal. I think I documented it in here - search under my ID.

More back on-topic, have you considered running a PCM from a manual Ranger? I'm assuming the pins are mostly all the same, but without the ones related to the automatic trans, and so you wouldn't get error codes related to that.

I don’t have a shop vac. That's a pretty good idea though!

I have the old harness and ECM.
It runs now and I’m not too worried about the CEL. I have another ranger that might be getting a 4.0 swap. That’s if the engine is bad. I’ll try running the 4.0 on the 2.9 harness and ECM before I swap the 4.0 harness and deal with that frustration again...