Fuel Problem from H$%^

[LTKiwi]

Background: I wanted a small truck to supplement my smaller car for around the house project and decided to get an older Ranger as a project. I found a 1987 2.9L Ranger locally and had it delivered to my garage for a grand. It's the bare bones version, no extended cab or four wheel drive and it has an automatic transmission. I've rebuilt a few cars in the past, but this one has me at my witts end.

When I bought it the truck had a blown head gasket on one side and a cracked head on the other. Replaced both and built her back up. Compression is great along with a nice healthy spark, but I'm missing the last piece of the puzzle...fuel.

Problem: After turning the key the fuel pumps don't whine like a standard EFI motor. I feel like I've scoured every corner of the internet trying to find a solution and here's where I'm at:

- There is no power to the interia switch, the switch appears good but jumpering it has not helped and there is no voltage between the two leads

- The fuel and ECM relays have been replaced (green and brown under the hood)

- After jumpering the fuel pump at the relay I can force the pump to run, so it seems to be an electrical issue

- There's no check engine light in the car, but the fasten seatbelt sign comes on at key turn

- Tonight I replaced the whole computer with a used one from eBay with no change

- All the fusible links have continuity on both sides of the fuse

...so here's where I'm at:

I feel like I'm missing a grounding wire somewhere, it seems most people had an issue with that. There's one wire that runs off the electrical plug going to the transmission that I can't find a plug in for. It's square, white and has about 3 plugs on it. If anyone knows where this goes I'd greatly appreciate it! The transmission currently won't move out of park, I don't know if this issue is related or not. Also looking at the starter solenoid by the battery I have the ground from the battery going to the permanent hot port and there is nothing hooked up to the second smaller port. Is this the correct setup?

I'm willing to try almost anything at this point. I'm really looking forward to driving this beast, and putting some sweet add-ons to it. Hoping that the Ranger gurus around here can help me out. Thanks!

 

[Psychopete]

is the small ground from the battery to the main harness connected?

does it run at all when you override the computer control over the relay (are you getting injector pulse???)?

just for grins, have you seen if it will run on starting fluid to make sure the timing is all right?

does seem like your computer is not grounding the relay if you were able to bypass from fused power to pump. did you happen to check for 12 volts at the red wire that would be from the EEC relay?

Transmission not wanting to go out of park - is it a floor shifter? if it is, take the top off that has the button. there's a white plastic shaft in there that sometimes wears out or breaks, which will prevent what you're describing.

 

[LTKiwi]

You guys are awesome. I stood there looking at it and only had two big black wires coming out of it. I found the wiring harness and a stray white wire and said what the hell and as soon as I touched it to the negative terminal i heard the fuel pump spin. Thanks! It's not quite fired up yet, I think it fell out of time since I didn't tighten the distributor all the way

 

[LTKiwi]

Oh, and correct diagnosis on the floor shifter, I pulled it apart and pushed down on it and was able to get it to shift. I just need to do some jerry rigging on it to get it to work full time.