died while driving, turns over

[bwilkinson]

Gentlemen,

Have a 92' ranger 2.3l, died while driving it and I was on the way to being deployed to OEF, sounds fun right! Anyhow, called a truck and had it towed to the house. I haven't had a chance to look at it yet, but i will be back stateside soon! I will start with the fuel pump relay and pump itself. Any other ideas? Could it be a timing belt issue? I felt a slight "jump or jolt" and the gauges all went to zero and it died. It will still turn over, but won't crank. A pretty novice mechanic myself, any other ideas for starting to troubleshoot would be appreciated.

 

[Duane867]

1st thing I would do is check for fuel and spark, then if all is good check behind the top of the timing cover ( you can see the back of the pulley easily ) to see if the cam was spinning. DO NOT crank it over and over though.
Simply have an assistant crank it once or twice max in short intervals.
If it turns the belt is not broken but may have jumped a tooth. If it doe snot its a broken belt. To tell if its a tooth off or more remove the fan and shroud, remove the rubber plug on top in the timing cover. crank the engine over by hand using a 7/8" socket and cheater bar until both the crank and cam are lined up. Should be about 10 degrees before top dead center. If the crank and cam don't match its out of time and needs a new belt.

 

[red85]

There is an inspection plug on the timing belt cover. Pop it out and have someone crank the engine for you. If there is no movement from the cam gear, you need a timing belt. If things are moving check to see if there'sany fuel in therail. Just push the schraeder valve. You mentioned a slight jump beforeit died; The timing belt may have jumped due to aweak tensioner. At any rate, it will likely be an easy fix.

Phil

 

[Duane867]

You cant see squat on my truck through that inspection plug with out removing the fan and shroud :-(

 

[michowski]

If you got spark, and compression the next thing I would do is at the top of the carpet in the passenger seat is a fuel cutoff switch. Its called an inertia switch. On my truck and I know for several other people that for whatever reason the switch popped and killed fuel flow. Simply press the button on the top of the switch if it went off and see if it starts then. Hope its something as simple as that.

 

[bwilkinson]

thanks

thanks for the reply gentlemen. I should be stateside soon and will begin troubleshooting. Definitely hope it is a simple fix, the truck has been reliable as hell. I bought it three years ago, put a new coil pack, sparkplugs, wires and battery and at least 50k miles. For all my fellow americans out there, just know that while you sleep at night, we are eliminating the pieces of $%$ that plot against us ........ one by one.

 

[Duane867]

Hoooooo Raaaaaa!

 

[mongo]

thanks man if they would let me i would be over there with you
thanks for fighting for us just dont lose hope

 

[bwilkinson]

glad to be back

well, looked at my truck and had my wife try to crank it while looking into the timing belt cover............. the belt didn't move a bit. Replacing the belt seems like a pretty complicated job (especially with my novice mechanic skills). Do i need to buy any special tools i.e. pully remover or the timing belt tensioner tool that they talk about in my chilton manual. Any help or tips would be appreciated.

 

[Frank The Tank]

SOunds like timing belt, I could have changed it but I dropped it off at local "central auto" and 230 bucks later I was on the road.

Frank

 

[red85]

If I were closer to where you are, I'd come right over and give you a hand changing that belt. It's really not a bad job to do it, but if you have a local shop you trust (like Frank suggested) do it then you're back on the road for very little green.

 

[Earl43P]

http://www.therangerstation.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6427&page=2

Read Post #21

You can also get printed procedures from a lot of auto parts stores, like AutoZone. They have junk available on line too. An $18 Haynes manual would suffice.

 

[bwilkinson]

ok, drained the radiator, removed the fan and shroud, water pump pulley and the camshaft pully. The large #3 screw that is in the top center of my timing belt cover is hollowed out. i am playing hell trying to get it out................ no luck yet.

 

[red85]

that screw can be a royal pain. I used an angle grinder to take one out once. It barked up the outer cover a little but I was still able to do the job LOL

 

[kemo]

ok, drained the radiator, removed the fan and shroud, water pump pulley and the camshaft pully. The large #3 screw that is in the top center of my timing belt cover is hollowed out. i am playing hell trying to get it out................ no luck yet.

Try an easy out and hope for the best. Sometimes... sometimes they work!