Check Gages Light On, Motor Cranks But Won't Start

[Uncle.$am]

Last night I was on the way home on the freeway and all the sudden I lost acceleration and power steering went out. So my motor stopped and I get the "Check Gages" light. On the shoulder I tried starting it twice .Had it towed back home and tried some different things. I replaced fuse 26 which was burnt out

I scanned it and it had the following codes:
P1443
P0141
P0401

Today I replaced the fuel filter, and that didn't work. I checked the fuel rail too and there is pressure, but I don't have a pressure gauge to see if it's sufficient. I took one of the spark plugs out and saw it was sparking.
Any other ideas?

 

[Josh B]

My 93 4.0 died one day going down the highway, well, it started sputtering. There was an unmarked pull out nearby that trucks used rather often and I pulled in there. It would start but sounded like everything in it was trying to change places. After about 3 hours I called a friend who brought a trailer and hauled it home.
At the time my Explorer was a decent second car until it blew the front transmission seal, and the Ranger got looked at a good bit with no idea what to do with it.
After about 2 weeks I went by it and tried to start it, it fired right up like nothing had ever happened, I never did figure that one out. Being a 93 OBD1 with no reader so never had any codes to go by
It just crossed my mind it could have sucked something out of the tank that kept it choked for fuel through that

 

[scotts90ranger]

I'm guessing it's the 2.3L in your profile? Does it sound odd when cranking or crank faster than normal? Pull the plastic/rubber plug on the plastic timing cover on the front of the engine about 8" down and see if the belt that is in there is extremely floppy, if so your timing belt broke and is what I would expect, it's not the end of the world, isn't the easiest thing to change but not the hardest either and the engine isn't hurt.

If you want to tackle it yourself, I would start by taking the fan off while the belt is on so you can get the 4 bolts loose, then take the belt off, then take off the power steering pump bracket (don't remember if it is 3 or 4 bolts, all from the side), take the crank bolt out (put a breaker bar and socket on the bolt head and rest it against the bottom of the passenger side frame rail then bump the starter), then pull the crank pulley off and timing cover. I recommend getting a belt kit with tensioner so take the tensioner off at this point, it's spring loaded, you can use a claw hammer around the spring to pry it and unload the spring. For reassembly put the new tensioner on and lock it in fully compressed then put the belt on aligned as in the picture below:

 

[Uncle.$am]

I'm guessing it's the 2.3L in your profile? Does it sound odd when cranking or crank faster than normal? Pull the plastic/rubber plug on the plastic timing cover on the front of the engine about 8" down and see if the belt that is in there is extremely floppy, if so your timing belt broke and is what I would expect, it's not the end of the world, isn't the easiest thing to change but not the hardest either and the engine isn't hurt.

If you want to tackle it yourself, I would start by taking the fan off while the belt is on so you can get the 4 bolts loose, then take the belt off, then take off the power steering pump bracket (don't remember if it is 3 or 4 bolts, all from the side), take the crank bolt out (put a breaker bar and socket on the bolt head and rest it against the bottom of the passenger side frame rail then bump the starter), then pull the crank pulley off and timing cover. I recommend getting a belt kit with tensioner so take the tensioner off at this point, it's spring loaded, you can use a claw hammer around the spring to pry it and unload the spring. For reassembly put the new tensioner on and lock it in fully compressed then put the belt on aligned as in the picture below:

View attachment 89347

Hello,

Sorry for not having the make, model, and motor in the post, I do not know how to put it in the signature, but you're right, that is the correct motor.

On Sunday I saw it was the timing belt that broke off, so I went and got a new one in a kit like you said and replaced it. It took a few times pputting the belt on and having the gears lined up like they were supposed to but eventually got it back together with a new timing belt. However it still wouldn't start.

 

[RonD]

Did you plug the Crank sensor back in?

 

[Uncle.$am]

Did you plug the Crank sensor back in?

I did.

 

[Uncle.$am]

Update, the truck is back to running! Took another look at it last weekend and saw I had lined up the crankshaft gear in the wrong position, so got that fixed. It seems to idle pretty high now though, probably about 1400-1500 rpm for a few seconds and back down to 1000 rpm after slowing down.

 

[RonD]

On startup the computer has the IAC Valve open all the way, so its fairly normal for cold or warm start to have an idle surge up to 1,500 and then computer starts to close IAC Valve to set "target idle"
Target idle is based on Coolant/engine temperature, via the ECT sensor
Cold idle 1,000rpm
Warm idle 750-800rpm on a 4cyl

If warm idle is higher then with warm engine idling unplug the 2 wire connector on IAC Valve, it will close
Idle should drop to 600rpm or engine may even stall, either is good it means no vacuum leaks
If idle doesn't drop then you have a vacuum leak