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1989 Ranger won't start


351Mazda

Well-Known Member
U.S. Military - Veteran
V8 Engine Swap
Solid Axle Swap
Joined
Jun 10, 2009
Messages
82
Vehicle Year
1994
Transmission
Automatic
I bought a non-running 1989 a few days ago, been messing with it for a couple days and I'm running low on ideas.

Situation- Truck ran great, kid before me took it out in the mud. Nose of the truck went in a hole and packed the timing belt pulley full of mud. Belt slipped, engine stalled. While getting drug out the rear axle hit a stump, breaking a rear leaf spring. Total damage done at this point was a broken leaf, and a skipped timing belt.

Yesterday I tore the front of the motor apart and fixed the timing. For one reason or another the truck wasn't getting gas after that. I hot-wired across the fuel relay to make the pump turn on.

What I get now is an occasional 'sputter'. It ran once for about 3 or 4 seconds and sounded fine. If I spray starting fluid in the intake it will try to start. I have fuel at the rail with the relay jumped, nothing without.

Is jumping the relay like I did considered OK, at least temporary? All I did was connect the 2 bigger wires. There are 4 going in, I imagine the bigger ones run the pump and the smaller ones come from the key.

Any ideas? Axle didn't seem to contact the tank, and the fuel lines/wires look good as far as I can tell. Fuel inertia switch is not tripped.
 
What engine is in there?
2.9l

EDIT: oops, I see it's 2.3l, post is in the 4cyl forum

The regulator builds pressure in the rail, if it fails pump works but fuel is just pumped back into the tank via the return line, so minimal pressure in the rail, i.e. sputtering.
A fuel pump coming on doesn't mean it can build pressure.
Can you check the pressure at the rail?
Should be above 35lbs with key on engine off, then let is sit with key off for a few minutes should only drop 1lb over 3 or 4 minutes.

I would swap the fuel filter just because of the age and $10 price

The fuel pump only comes on for a few seconds when key is first turned on, it doesn't run continually.
When you jump the relay does the pump act this way?

The computer relay should be right next to the fuel pump relay, this relay(brown) activates the fuel pump relay(green), do you hear it click when key is on?
 
Last edited:
It's running fine now, but I'm still having to jump the relay. There's a brown wire going into the relay, when I jump that to the positive battery terminal everything works correctly. Pump runs for 2 seconds then kicks off, the whole deal.

The issue now is that the brown wire should be hot with the key but isn't. Anyone know what makes that wire hot? The inertia switch isn't tripped, fuses are good. Next step is a toggle switch, I'd rather not do that if I can help it.

Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk 2
 
What does the other relay do? Not the fuel, but the ecm. Truck runs fine with the relay unplugged and the fuel relay jumped across.

Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk 2
 
Got it. There was a fuse missing in the distribution box. Not sure how that happened, but at least I found it.

Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk 2
 
So with the fuse in place does the truck start and run or does just the fuel pump work now without the jumper?
 
So with the fuse in place does the truck start and run or does just the fuel pump work now without the jumper?

Think about that. He said he got it running, but still had to jumper the fuel pump relay to make it run.
 
Think about that. He said he got it running, but still had to jumper the fuel pump relay to make it run.

No, everything is working right without the jumper now. I can't figure out where the missing fuse went though.

Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk 2
 

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