90 ranger 2.3 loses power intermitently

[racechaser]

I have a 90 ford ranger with a 2.3l engine and a 5 speed. I have had the truck for about 3 months and for the first two it ran fine. About a month ago it bogged down at highway speeds. It lost power and wouldn't go over 50-60 no matter how much you pushed the gas. in fact no response to pedal for the most part. It returned to full power after about 5 minutes. Ran the rest of the way home (50 miles) with no problems.

It happened again a couple of days later. Same story.

It happened again a week later, this time I noticed if I put it in neutral and revved it up for 3-5 seconds and backed off throttle it would stop in a matter of seconds. I also notice if I back off throttle to lowest RPM's to maintain the same speed it stops bogging down.

Well now I decided to replace my fuel filler hose and check fuel pump while bed was off. (I thought the rubber hose on pump may have a hole in it) I ran it lower on level in fuel tank than normally because I was going to possibly drop the tank. While running it that day it bogged down more than normal.

I am wondering if a fuel pump can go bad without going out completely. I have an f150 with dual tanks and it will do the same thing and when you flip the switch to switch the tanks the engine runs smooth as silk.

I am at a loss and don't want to change a bunch of parts without some reasoning on why.

My thoughts are fuel pump, Throttle position sensor, convertor beginning to plug, or coil packs going bad.

Anybody have this happen to them?

Thanks in advance
Scott

 

[garyl]

I have the same problem plus mine won't go over 55 maybe 60 goin down hill, my fuel pump went out completely so I replaced it but that didn't fix the problem Iam also running a new cat converter

 

[Bill G]

Scott, I had a similar problem with my truck years back. I finally changed my pump out to a Walbro unit from a 5.0 mustang. Has worked like charm for a couple of years now. The Walbro unit replaced a 6 month old unit from Autozone.

I got the pump from here. 87-93 Mustang 190lph pump
http://autoperformanceengineering.com/

I'm sure you can get them on Ebay also.

 

[racechaser]

I changed the fuel pump and it still does it sometimes. My fuel guage works now though .

So now I am REALLY SERIOUS about getting this resolved. I could deal with the loss of power but the last few times I've driven it I thought i was going to be stranded. When I would kill it to get gas or go into a store, it just spun over and over for two minutes sometimes and never tried to fire. When it would start no puff of black smoke from fuel like you would think it would have from dumping gas into cylinders with no fire.

That, to me anyway, seems to be an important clue in the solution. Does the crank sensor electronically allow the fuel input, and the fire to the engine?

Another problem is my tach only reads half or less ALL the time. it never goes over 1500 RPM's. I swapped clusters and still nothing different on tach or temp guage which is broken also.I changed sending unit for temp and that didn't fix it either.

The check engine light is on but not sure what terminals to paperclip together to read codes. Autozone can't check OBD1 where I live.

Thanks
Scott

 

[Bryan22]

You can get a cheap code reader for like 20 bux or if you have a multi meter you can check <A href="http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/OBD_I.html">here</A> to check the codes.Well looks like my HTMl code didnt work but you can just copy/paste the link for instructions.

 

[djschick88]

I am wondering if a fuel pump can go bad without going out completely. I have an f150 with dual tanks and it will do the same thing and when you flip the switch to switch the tanks the engine runs smooth as silk.


My truck CANT go over 60mph but i know the fuel pump can go partially bad. If you run the truck with too little fuel and the pump cant suck up enough fuel (like when you turn) it can actually overheat and barely work at low levels but fine when its full or a little under half. theres my 2 cents hope it helps.

 

[racechaser]

You can get a cheap code reader for like 20 bux or if you have a multi meter you can check <A href="http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/OBD_I.html">here</A> to check the codes.Well looks like my HTMl code didnt work but you can just copy/paste the link for instructions.

So I want to check my codes but I can't find the connector. The only thing that looks like a diagnostic connector is mounted near the radiator. But it is elliptical not square and oblong like on the picture in the tech library.

It is actually a 91 Ranger not a 90 Ranger.

Scott

 

[racechaser]

OK so I found connector on Passenger side finally. It is behind Power Distribution Box on Passenger firewall.

I pulled codes

21 Engine Coolant Temperature (ECT) sensor out of range- ECT
41 System Lean- Fuel Control
32 EVP- EGR not responding during test-EVP
77 System did not receive "Goose Test"--see "tests"
52 Power Steering Pressure Switch/ Circuit Open PSP


And then the same codes repeated again.

So I'm thinking ECT now. How about some help with deciphering these codes as they relate to my symptoms.

When I loaded it up on dolly to bring home from being stranded yesterday, Power steering cap had blown off from being locked into place so I guess pressure switch is stuck also.

Scott

 

[phatcap]

any update? did you get it figured out?