mystery wire...anyone know what it is?

[silicon_ghost]

lately i have been having problems with my truck. it is a 93 4cyl 2.3 5 sp. man. sometimes when i am going down the road it will stumble on itself and stay like that no matter how hard i push the gas. well yesterday when i left for work it got real bad. made it to 3rd gear and it lost all power like i wasn't even pushing the gas pedal. turned down a side road and slowed down and put it into 1st gear and it still did it even when i mashed the pedal. pulled over and left it running and popped the hood to see if i could see anything out of the ordinary and the motor was shaking while it idled real bad. limped it home and tried it again in the morning. got about 2 miles away before it got bad again so i pulled over and looked underneath the truck and the cat was glowing red. btw, before i got out i smelled a faint scent of gas. would that be from the computer trying to fix the bad idle? went out this afternoon and was looking around and seen this wire hanging. it was connecting to the coil pack and i noticed the wires were in bad shape. i don't know what it is but would this possibly be causing the problems?

 

[Dave R]

Is the red end attached to a small silver canister that is attached to the coil bracket? If so, then it is not your problem, it is a noise suppressing capacitor. Not too many wires would change from red to black when passing through a connector like that.

A glowing Cat is usually the sign of an overly rich mixture.

Can you pull the codes from the computer?

Looks like your exhaust manifold is cracked too.

 

[mudnsnow]

if the wire is red and light green. this for the radio noise capacitor. it's probably not your problem. For your catalitic converter when it glow red it's because too much unburn gas going to the exhaust. Try to find the problem fast cause CC can be damaged really fast if he overheat.

 

[silicon_ghost]

the black end that is hanging was actually connected to a canister looking thing.

what would cause it to run rich? the only thing i can compare the noise that my truck makes when it bogs down is when a semi does the engine brake thing just not as loud....if that helps at all. to me it seems like something is clogged because it will clear up and get a burst of speed before it does it again.

 

[mudnsnow]

run self-test will be a good start

 

[silicon_ghost]

i'm not the most mechanically gifted person but i do try. i did change my timing belt myself with the help of you guys. so...what is the self-test?

 

[scotts90ranger]

couldn't a cracked exhaust manifold cause it to run lean? I've had that problem while running engines on the dyno running emissions... as funny as it sounds the crack in the manifold lets air in and makes the O2 sensor think it's running lean, so it throws more fuel at it, which could also explain why it takes it a couple minutes to kick in, until the engine warms up, it's running in open loop where it doesn't take the O2 sensors signal into account, then when it does, it would run like crap.

don't know if that's what's really going on, but it's a thought... I'm trying to learn a thing or two from work

 

[TireIron]

your cat could be plugged up, that sounds like what happened to me both times mine went. The ceramics inside break apart and can turn and plug the output of the cat and it would be exactly like a truck using an exhaust brake.when the cat is cold tap it lightly or shake it around and see if you hear a rattling sound from it. If its plugged it will get red hot and the engine will barely run and will have zero power.

 

[mudnsnow]

Self test is a mode that you can enter and the PCM will self-test himself and give you a code for any problem he found....... Check the teh library for more info

 

[mudnsnow]

yes an exaust leak upstream of the o2 sensor can affect the air/fuel ratioand cause some driveability problem

 

[silicon_ghost]

the manifold has been cracked since i've had the truck and it is going on 2 yrs now. it just started acting like this within the last couple months. started out that it would happen once for a few seconds and than go away. monday was the worst that it got. to the point that it wasn't even drivable. i drove the truck into town the saturday before and it didn't do it once. i am leaning more towards the cat being clogged because the exhaust on the truck is barely hanging on as it is. the previous owners didn't take care of it.

 

[AZ Ranger in PA]

New member searching for similar problems on my 92 Ranger 2.3L with 315,000 miles on it. I was wondering if you were able to determine what was/is causing your truck to stumble, lose power, and cc to glow red. I had a new cc installed and continued with problems. I took cc back to make sure they didn't install a bad one or backwards, it was good. Cat converter still glows red when it stumbles. New plugs & wires have been installed. I installed new plugs & wires thinking that was causing the stumbling.

 

[Duane867]

the manifold has been cracked since i've had the truck and it is going on 2 yrs now. it just started acting like this within the last couple months. started out that it would happen once for a few seconds and than go away. monday was the worst that it got. to the point that it wasn't even drivable. i drove the truck into town the saturday before and it didn't do it once. i am leaning more towards the cat being clogged because the exhaust on the truck is barely hanging on as it is. the previous owners didn't take care of it.

Clogged cat would make power loss worse as it heated up.
Run fine when cold, like crap when hot.

The crack in the exhaust manifold may not have been all the way through before but has just now broken through. It would definitely do what you've got going on if so.
To tell if the cat is the problem simply remove it from the loop all together.
If its barely hanging on already simply cut off the flanged ends, get a section of pipe cut to take up the gap, and clamp them with exhaust clamps in place.
If that fixes it have the pieces welded in place.

If its the manifold then I would goto the J-yard and buy an exhaust manifold that is the hi-flo header type. ( tubular like headers ) thats what came on mine from the factory. Great design and the wont crack as easy like cast.
I THINK the ports are the same on the head no matter which you use but do check before you swap.

 

[Duane867]

New member searching for similar problems on my 92 Ranger 2.3L with 315,000 miles on it. I was wondering if you were able to determine what was/is causing your truck to stumble, lose power, and cc to glow red. I had a new cc installed and continued with problems. I took cc back to make sure they didn't install a bad one or backwards, it was good. Cat converter still glows red when it stumbles. New plugs & wires have been installed. I installed new plugs & wires thinking that was causing the stumbling.

I would say your problem stems from a lean running condition up stream some where. Like say an intake leak, exhaust manifold leak or something similar.
There are many things that can cause a lean condition, those are just two to check.