No start

[Lead Head]

Hey guys, I'm at my wits end with this thing. Its an 87 Ranger 2.9 V6 5spd 4x4. It sat for a few months, and this past weekend I went to go move it from my neighbors house (was storing it for me) to mine. Got about halfway back to my house when it started to die, it started missfiring and popping chugged on what felt like two cylinders, then stalled. Started right back up - barely, then suddenly all 6 decided to fire again, and managed to get it to the beginning of my driveway where it promptly died again. Started up again, but on about two cylinders and managed to limp it the rest of the way back then. Since then I have not been able to get it started, sometimes it will pop on one cylinder or so, or make a weak back fire out the intake, but it will never catch or do anything significant.

I have plenty of fuel pressure and plenty of spark. I've tried 3 different coils, and about 4 different TFI modules borrowed off a friend, and they all had the same result. I cleaned the cap and rotor, no signs of arcing between terminals or anything like that, and I also bought new wires. Sparkplugs are new as well. Shooting ether/starting fluid/carb cleaner into the intake does nothing at well.

Any ideas? I'm thinking maybe the distributor timing is off some how, but I can't see how to get a socket/wrench on what I believe is the nut that holds the clamp?

 

[holyford86]

pull codes, could be many things.

 

[Lead Head]

Alright will do, also any insight on how to loosen the distributor to turn it?

 

[RustedRanger]

Use a a short extension and a universal on your ratchet with a 13mm socket I just did it last Thursday. One thing you might check is the plug-in to the coil. I checked my wiring one day and unplugged the coil,the plug in looked fine,plugged it back in and then no fire,no start. I had a friend who does diagnostics check it out,he took a small wire brush and cleaned out the plug in and it started right up.....but when the plug-in was jiggled around the idle would jiggle around and it showed up clearly on his diagnostic computer he had hooked up....the plug-in was bad. I got a new one at Carquest for like $12. Its worth a try,it could have corroded while it sat.

 

[Lead Head]

Which side did you get the bolt from? I'm having no luck on the drivers side.

 

[RustedRanger]

The passenger side Lead. Working on the dist. on the 2.9 is a real pain and makes me wish they'd have put it in the front like on the old V-8's You have to use both hands to get it though,one on the extension and the other on the ratchet. I used my left hand to hold the extension and my right on the ratchet.

 

[Lead Head]

Okay, this is really frustrating me. I haven't tried to move the distributor yet, and I went and lined up the crank timing mark, and checked the distributor's rotor location in relation to the #1 plug - and it matches up. I do have spark - outside the engine, but I do not know if the coil is putting out enough power to mark a spark in compression. I suppose it is possible that the other two coils I tried were also bad - as they were just extras a friend had lying around.

 

[IMenriched]

Have you had the compression checked?? seeing as starting fluid sprayed into the TB didn't have much affect.

the following link is from the tech library and help diagnose spark issues...including the pick up coil (hall effect) inside distributor. as well as checking the coils.

http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/TFI_Diagnostic.html

 

[Lead Head]

Compression is just fine. 160 PSI all cylinders.