Confused.

[Stumpy]

Okay, I drove my 86' Ranger (2.9L, auto) about 50 miles today for her maiden voyage.

Ran great, but when I parked it, I went back to start it about 5min later and it would fire, start up, then die. It was like there wasn't any fuel pressure, I don't recall if I heard the fuel pump or not. This hasn't happened before.

I tried again about an hour later and she started right up. She's been running great since, no problems starting.


Any ideas?

 

[IMenriched]

Okay, I drove my 86' Ranger (2.9L, auto) about 50 miles today for her maiden voyage.

Ran great, but when I parked it, I went back to start it about 5min later and it would fire, start up, then die. It was like there wasn't any fuel pressure, I don't recall if I heard the fuel pump or not. This hasn't happened before.

I tried again about an hour later and she started right up. She's been running great since, no problems starting.


Any ideas?

the more experienced here may have other thoughts/advice, here is a few to concider.

how many miles do you have on it now?
does it still quit running/not restart after it is up to temp?

you MAY have a couple of things going on.
Check/replace the TFI 1st...(the little item that is just below the distributor cap, that has a inline electrical plug into it). I had one that would that would Ohm out fairly well, minus 1or 2 pin combinations, they were inconsistant, mind you this was brand new with same amount of miles on it as yours. These things get affected by heat....work when cold...fail when hot they also control the fuel.

It may have just been a poor connection/s in the harness, grounds too...if you've just gotten it back on the road after a extended stay in surgery/rehab.... purhaps one of the connections were not seated fully?? or there is a pin that is weak/compromisied in the connection itself....check to see if you have a pin stuck/broken in the spade reciever in the connections...as you push in it harder makes the connection again. exspecially after unpluging and repluging them in after work being done.

the other thing, it may have a failing Fuel Pressure Regulator (FPR). Were you certain that you still had spark and not fuel when this happened? then this maybe the issue.


hope that helps

 

[Stumpy]

Thank you, I will check some of that out.

It has about 140,000 miles on it. She will start back up once up to temp, it's like there is nothing wrong now. I really wish I could reproduce it, so then I could figure it out.

I never thought about not having spark, that's a good question. But I am thinking fuel pump issues, possibly electrical? I don't remember hearing the fuel pump *whine* when I turned the key like usual.

 

[Jspafford]

Fuel pump problems are not usually intermittent. When they fail, they fail. However, electrical issues related to the fuel system are not so uncommon.

Next time it happens make sure to listen to see if you hear the fuel pump prime.